Jerry Jones says Cowboys will play international game ‘as soon as next year’
Of the 32 teams in the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys have the longest drought of any in terms of playing in an international game.
The last time the Cowboys went outside the U.S. for a game was in 2014 when they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 31-17 in London. Since then, the Cowboys have not been required to give up a home game to go play across borders, but that drought may soon be coming to an end.
Speaking after the Cowboys’ 34-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, owner Jerry Jones said that the Cowboys’ time to play internationally is approaching, and they could see it happen as soon as next season.
“Yes,” Jones said on if he sees it happening soon. “That’s the rule, I’ve got to go do that. That’s where that is. I think that [happens] probably in the near-time — near being as soon as next year.”
In 2022, the league mandated that every team has to play in an NFL International Series game at least once every eight years. Since then, all but five teams have taken part: Detroit, Cincinnati, Houston, Las Vegas and Dallas. But considering the Cowboys have the longest drought, it is shaping up to be their time.
One thing that has lengthened the drought has been opponents with home games against the Cowboys vetoing having to give up a Dallas home game, given that Cowboys fans typically sell out stadiums across the country. Instead, they ask the league to give the international game to another opponent on their schedule.
“A lot of clubs go as the visiting team,” Jones said. “The team that’s the home team has to give up the home [game]. That’s what you have to do with the existing rules every eight years. What really hits us is because we’re, frankly, a good draw, clubs have a right to veto the team that is the visiting team. They can veto that. That rule has bumped us a few times. Otherwise, if the league said [to visiting teams] you have to have an international game, we’d have them.
“We have to go for the home game. The visiting team, we can’t say yes or no. The reason we don’t go as the visiting team is because they don’t want to give up the draw.”
In the past, Jones has said that it would be his preference to see the Cowboys go to Mexico City or Monterrey, given that Mexico has a large Cowboys fan base.
“Yes, [Mexico] would be [the preference],” he said Sunday. “But like I say, we’d love to get it fixed. We’d love to go down there as a visiting team, too, and as a home team.”
Estadio Azteca, the 88,000-seat stadium in Mexico City, has previously hosted five NFL games dating back to the league’s first-ever international regular-season game in 2005. After the stadium underwent renovations in anticipation of the upcoming World Cup, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in October that the league will be returning there in 2026 for the first time in four years.
“We’ll be back in Mexico City next year, which we’re thrilled about,” Goodell told reporters.
While the Cowboys will know their 2026 opponents at the end of the regular season, they will not know their schedule and potential involvement in any international games until May.
Along with Mexico City and various Europe destinations being possibilities, the Cowboys are also one of nine possibilities to travel to Melbourne, Australia, to take on the Los Angeles Rams.
This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM.
