So, we've learned a lesson: The league that played the fabled Ice Bowl in temperatures of minus-13°F, played the Fog Bowl in zero visibility, and played Super Bowl XXIII just days after riots in Miami, has a new a benchmark for playing despite difficult circumstances.Surrounded by a heavier security presence than perhaps any NFL regular-season game before, the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints kicked off just as the league planned for months at around 3:30 p.m.Paris time (9:30 a.m ET in the United States).NEARLY 1,000 ARRESTED ACROSS FRANCE AS POLICE FIND POTENTIAL WEAPONS ON PROTESTORS: OFFICIALSThe game is being played in the wake of an exhausting Saturday in which a government estimated 110,000 protesters consisting of students, workers, farmers, socialists, communists, pro-Palestine Muslims, anarchists, Antifa and other radicals took to the streets to march, battle police, and cause civil unrest.And although that unrest forced the shuttering of Saturday's three official fan events planned by the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints, it didn't claim Sunday's game.Stade de France, approximately nine miles north of the Eiffel Tower, was near capacity at kickoff.The NFL shield logo sits on the field with the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop at the NFL Flag Experience at Champ de Mars in Paris, France, on Oct.
24, 2026.(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)It is unknown if the game has faced any credible security threats prior to kickoff.
Emails to the league's security department and the Prefecture de Police de Paris have not been answered by publication time.And while the teams and players will tell the tale of this game, the story of how it remained as scheduled despite the surrounding violence is an equally compelling and perhaps controversial narrative.FRANCE'S TOP SOCCER TEAM OBEYS POLICE ORDER TO MOVE SUNDAY MATCH; SAINTS, STEELERS OWNERS MEET WITH MACRONThe NFL is playing this first game in France after calls from pundits, at least one player's w...