For most of the past decade, there's been rampant speculation that the NFL might eventually put a team in London and although that hasn't happened yet, it's an idea that the league is still considering.
As a matter of fact, not only is the NFL thinking about putting one team in London, but Roger Goodell actually floated the idea of putting an entire division in Europe. The commissioner's comments came over the weekend while he was in London for the Giants-Packers game.
During an interview, Goodell was asked about the possibility of London getting a team.
"There's no question that London could support, not just one franchise, I think two franchises. I really believe that," Goodell said, via NFL UK. "That's from a fan perspective, from a commercial standpoint, from a media standpoint. I think [London] has proven that."
Goodell was then asked if the league would ever consider putting an entire NFL division in Europe, which would consist of four teams.
"That's part of what we're doing," Goodell said. "We're trying to sort of see, could you have multiple locations in Europe where you could have an NFL franchise, because it would be easier as a division."
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The NFL has already played two games in Europe this year with plans for two more, including the league's first regular-season game ever in Germany.
The fact that Goodell was willing to publicly acknowledge the idea of putting four teams in Europe means it's likely something that the NFL will give serious consideration to over the next decade. One of the biggest problems with putting a team in London is that it would be a traveling nightmare, but putting an entire division in Europe would help alleviate that issue.
If you had an entire division in Europe, that means each team would get to stay in Europe for 11 or 12 of its 17 games. Depending on the schedule rotation, each team would get eight or nine home games, plus they'd also get three road games against their inter-European divisional rivals. Each European team would still have to play five games in the United States, but that could be solved by giving each team one two-game and one three-game road trip so they only have to fly overseas twice.
Putting four teams in Europe would also be a more practical solution for teams based in the United States. For instance, if the AFC East is scheduled to play the European division, then the Patriots could fly over and play the games in back-to-back weeks so they only have to make one trip (Under the current scheduling formula, when a division is matched up against another division, each team gets two home games and two away games against the opposing division).
If the NFL does put a division in Europe, there are still plenty of questions that would need to be answered. For one, it's not clear if the division would consist of four new teams or if the league would ask a current team (or teams) to relocate (Remember, Jags owner Shad Khan came close to buying Wembley Stadium in 2018 and there was also a report in 2019 claiming the Chargers briefly thought about a move to London).
Although the NFL hasn't expanded since 2002 with the Texans, the owners might be open to a European expansion knowing how much money they could potentially bring in by adding four teams.
Goodell once talked about the possibility of putting a team in London back in 2016, and at the time, he said there were a few competitive issues that still needed to be ironed out. Apparently, the league has decided that the easiest way to fix those issues is to just put an entire division in Europe.
Of course, this might not happen anytime soon (or at all), but the fact that the league is even thinking about it is very interesting. The NFL's former head of international once predicted that there would be multiple teams in Europe by the late 2020s and when he made that prediction in 2016, it sounded kind of crazy, but now it seems there's at least a sliver of a chance that it could happen.
The league has been sending games to London since 2007 and those games have been a resounding success, which is likely why the NFL is now thinking about permanently putting an entire division in Europe.
