The picture the NFL wants you to have of America's most popular sport is that this is a steamroller crushing it at every turn, with revenues, ratings, salaries, and, of course, entertainment and drama breaking through one ceiling after another in a seemingly endless streak of success.

And much of that is indeed an accurate portrait.

But there's another snapshot the average fan is increasingly seeing and that's of an NFL that is taking more out of your wallet than ever, whether you're headed to games or watching at home.

It's the NFL that was born in America but is looking to export games to feed fans abroad – obviously at the expense of packed stadiums at home.

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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold (14) calls a play at the line of scrimmage against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half in an NFC Divisional Round game at Lumen Field on Jan. 17, 2026. (Steven Bisig/Imagn Images)

And, it is the NFL that has partnered with gambling conglomerates as a way of increasing revenue and interest, perhaps at the expense of feeding addiction.

So, yes, the NFL is America's reality show. It's fun and captivating, but it's also unquestionably troubling at times. 

So how did the NFL behemoth get here?

"When I started in the NFL, it was the most popular sport," said former San Diego Chargers team doctor David Chao, who worked 17 seasons for the team. "By the time I was done, it was more popular than all the other sports combined.

"And what's the fundamental difference? You go to a sports bar during baseball season. It's all men watching games. You go to a sports bar on Sunday during football season, it's half women watching games. They've doubled their audience. And they added fantasy. But what is fantasy? It's personal ownership and stake. It's personal stake in the games."

Chao points out that fans years ago asked him whether a player was available for a game because they wanted the Chargers to win. Fans still care about their teams, but the league has added new fans that want to know that information because they want to set their fantasy team to win.

Or they want to have their gambling bets win.

The NFL's ‘Existential Threat’ 

Gambling has become a revenue source for the NFL that simply didn't exist a decade or so ago. 

The NFL has shifted from outright opposition to active commercial partnership with the sports betting industry. Caesars Entertainment now serves as the league's official casino sponsor while DraftKings and FanDuel are official sports betting partners.

These agreements allow the partners to use NFL trademarks, promote betting activities in league media and engage fans with NFL-branded betting experiences. And while the NFL maintains boundaries designed to protect the integrity of the game, that is a too-thin line for anyone who understands how potential betting information works.

"It's a disaster, it's the existential threat to football," said famed NFL agent Leigh Steinberg, whose career was Hollywood's template for Tom Cruise's character in the 1996 movie "Jerry Maguire." "All it takes is one inside piece of information being leaked to a gambler that's trying to do a prop bet or an athlete that actually shaves performance, and it's a slippery slope to having a true contest, and it starts to resemble wrestling.

"Gambling is maybe good news for revenue, but it's bad news for the integrity of the game and continued fan interest."

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NFL Feeding Gambling Addictions

The sportsbook in the Circa Resort & Hotel ahead of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mario Hommes/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Steinberg is the author of four books, including his latest, due out March 24, titled "The Comeback: A Playbook for Turning Life's Setbacks Into Victories." Part of that book details Steinberg's battle with alcohol addiction, and he's concerned that the NFL's ties to gambling could have a terrible effect on some of its fans.

Beyond likely losing a lot of money, that is.

"They're going to create a whole new generation of gambling addicts," he said. "Because certain people can't handle this. Second of all, if you don't feel the games are played on a level playing field with equal officiating, rules, every player trying his hardest … If you introduce into the fan's brain that there's a possibility that something else is going on other than what they see on the field, it's a disaster."

There is already a faction of NFL fans on social media who refer to the NFL as scripted. Some NFL staff even publicly joke about this narrative. But all it takes is one player, innocently or not, sharing injury information that gets leaked into gambling circles as to affect betting lines, and the NFL would have a scandal on its hands.

NFL Exporting Games Around Globe

New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones (8) carries the ball against the New York Giants in the second half during the 2024 NFL Munich Game at Allianz Arena. (Kirby Lee-Imagn Images)

But none of this is so far slowing the NFL from its steady, seemingly inexorable expansion into becoming a global game.

"In today’s world, we have to be global," Commissioner Roger Goodell told fans in Ireland last season before the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings played in Dublin. "Every time we play an international game, fans say they want more. I really, truly believe our game can and will be global. Our job is to share our game with the rest of the world."

The NFL will play a record nine international games in 2026 across four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums: 

• London, U.K. (Two games in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, One in Wembley Stadium)
• Madrid, Spain (Bernabéu Stadium)
• Melbourne, Australia (Melbourne Cricket Ground)
• Mexico City, Mexico(Estadio Banorte)
• Munich, Germany (FC Bayern Munich Stadium)
• Paris, France (Stade de France Stadium)
• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Maracanã Stadium)

Paris, Melbourne and Rio are new additions to the International slate. And they won't be the last, if things go according to plan.

"We would like to get to 16 games, so everyone is playing one game a year internationally," Goodell said.

Players Do Not Want 18th Game

But every game that is exported is a game that leaves the United States. 

Well, the NFL has a long-range plan for that which may appease some fans but will surely displease players and that is adding another game. Even though Goodell cautioned during Super Bowl week that adding an 18th game was "not a given," he added that NFL owners want to discuss such an expansion with the NFL Players Association. 

That's because the NFL definitely wants to some day offer an 18-game regular season and two bye weeks that begins on or before Labor Day and ends on the Sunday prior to President's Day. That plan would include two preseason games to give each team a dry run for a home and away game.

"Our members have no appetite for an 18th regular-season game," NFL Players Association interim Executive Director David White said during the union’s annual Super Bowl week news conference in San Francisco.

But the players' union has balked at additional games in the past. And then it has given in to additional games in collective bargaining in return for more money. So the league believes one more game can again be negotiated.

New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo (44) reacts after an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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