Against a backdrop of intense civil unrest across France, with nearly a thousand arrests and comments from President Donald Trump suggesting a postponement, the NFL’s Paris game between the Steelers and Saints actually kicked off Sunday. And get this: the whole thing went down without a single incident or delay at Stade de France. After a week of global headlines, the league’s sixth international game this season went off exactly as planned, a 16-10 win for the Steelers over the Saints.
The Week That Was: Protests, Politics, and Postponement Talk
You gotta hand it to the NFL, they stuck to their guns all week long. The public conversation leading up to this game was absolutely wild, thanks to recent civil unrest and violence across France. President Donald Trump even chimed in Friday, telling reporters he “would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match,” adding, “you worry about it.” Seriously, that’s not exactly a calm lead-in for a major sporting event. On Saturday alone, police made nearly 1,000 arrests, with over 400,000 people across France participating in ongoing protests about school funding and the cost of living. Reports described mass marches starting peacefully but ending with fireworks thrown at police, who responded with tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons. French police even asked Paris Saint-Germain to reschedule their Sunday soccer match against Lyon to Monday.
Despite all that, the NFL, commissioner Roger Goodell, and owners Gayle Benson of the Saints and Art Rooney II of the Steelers, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, maintained throughout the week that the game would play as scheduled. Goodell even spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who confirmed the conversation and said there was “no indication the game will be impacted in any way.” Reporter Amanda Christovich from Front Office Sports tweeted pre-kickoff about the “beautiful weather” and noted that while NFL and team houses were closed Saturday due to protests, those areas weren’t disturbed. City center felt mostly normal, despite some boarded-up shops and visible police. Nick Underhill, a reporter covering the Saints, summed up his trip to the stadium: “Getting the stadium was no problem by taxi. No signs of anything going on. Just absurd traffic.” Most media members in France reported feeling safe and mostly unaffected by the Saturday protests, noting that the only calls to postpone were coming from the U.S.
Game Day in the Emerald City of Europe
When Sunday, October 25, 2026, finally arrived, it was all football. The game kicked off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time, 2:30 p.m. Paris time, broadcast on NFL Network, now owned by Disney’s ESPN. An announced crowd of 78,488 fans packed Stade de France, ready for the action. And the Steelers’ arrival? Talk about making an entrance! Quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Drew Allar, and Will Howard, alongside quarterbacks coach Tom Arth, showed up at the stadium in suits and similar hats. The team’s social media post declared it was “by order of the Peaky Blinders.” Inside the stadium, fans saw video boards flashing explanations of football concepts like “interception,” “forced fumble,” and “fumble recovery” in French, a nice touch for those new to the game.
This Paris matchup wasn’t just a one-off, either. It was the sixth of nine international games on the NFL’s slate this season, a huge part of the league’s ever-burgeoning global ambitions. This wasn’t just a game, it was a statement. The NFL showed the world it can deliver football, even when the world outside the stadium is anything but calm. They held their ground, they played the game, and now we move onto the next international showdown.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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