No International Games, No Problem for Arizona Cardinals

ARIZONA — The Arizona Cardinals won't need their passports for the 2026 regular season.

The league announced its full slate of games overseas and outside the United States for the coming year, and places such as Paris and Mexico City held options for the Cardinals to pack their bags at some point.

Neither is happening.

With the upcoming regular season schedule release (full slate revealed Thursday, May 14 at 5:00 PM AZ time), the NFL revealed matchups for all of Melbourne, Rio De Janeiro, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City.

Thoughts on the #AZCardinals not playing an international game in 2026? pic.twitter.com/IAKSfHJEM9
— Donnie Druin (@DonnieDruin) May 13, 2026

Honestly, that's perfectly fine.

The circus associated with trying to get teams prepared to play anywhere outside of a typical road contest isn't normally worth the cost. Arizona, looking to get their feet settled in the first year of Mike LaFleur's watch, probably dodged a bullet with the wild logistics and impact of playing a game in a completely different place/time zone.

Arizona's projections as a team likely not making the playoffs could have also played a role in ensuring the Cardinals weren't featured in international markets. They last played a game outside of the U.S. in 2022 when they faced the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico, where they've played two of their three international games (the other being London).

At some point the Cardinals will eventually return to international waters as the NFL is clearly looking to expand their reach into the global parts of the world where untapped markets are available. While probably ridiculous in asking, it's also clear the league would love for every team to play one international game per season down the road.

With the NFL practically closing in on an extra regular season game, it feels like we're getting closer to that reality. The Cardinals have marketing rights in Mexico and Canada, per the league's global markets policy.

There's hope LaFleur will help turn the Cardinals around within that time span, though there's really no downside in having Arizona not travel for games more than they have to already. Thanks to their positioning near the west coast, they typically are in the top half of traveled miles in the league every season.

Often times you hear teams complain about the impact of travel and playing in completely different time zones on untypical surfaces and how long it takes for teams to readjust to their normal cadence once finally getting back.

It doesn't sound like the Cardinals are missing out on that this year.

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