Owners voted Wednesday to add a game in São Paulo in 2024, marking the fifth continent in which the NFL has played. The NFL will play three games in London again next year and one in Munich.
The league will expand to eight international games in 2025.
With the exception of the AFC’s Jaguars, who have a London partnership, the NFL is likely to send NFC home games abroad next year. The NFC, which includes the Bears, has nine 2024 home games; the AFC has eight.
Bears kicker Cairo Santos is the NFL’s only Brazilian player ever — he was born an hour from São Paulo. He said he’d love to contact the NFL to lobby for the Bears — and joked that if it’s another team he’d ask coach Matt Eberflus “to give me a day off” so he could go himself.
The Bears were assigned the United Kingdom and Spain as international home market areas two years ago, allowing them to sell sponsorships there. Spain was a candidate for 2024 but was not added. The Bears could still land in any of the three countries.
The Bears last played internationally in 2019, losing to the Raiders in London.
