PARIS — What do Aaron Rodgers, Jay-Z and Pope Leo XIV have in common? Come Sunday, they’ll all have performed in front of a sold-out crowd at the Stade de France this fall.
While the NFL has increased its presence in Europe in recent years, Sunday’s game between the Saints and Steelers will be the first NFL game of any kind played in France. Paris was not chosen as a host city when the NFL first began playing overseas preseason games in the 1980s and ’90s, nor did it have a team in the now-defunct NFL Europe league. But as the most populous metropolitan area on the continent, it was only a matter of time before the NFL came calling.
