"The first international game of the National Football League season, a Friday-night tilt between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in São Paulo, is celebrated on the ground by the usual pomp and circumstance. There are photo booths and merch tents catering to local fans, samba dancers in feathered head-pieces entertaining American die-hards traveling across the equator, and a press conference where Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has to backtrack after calling association football (that is, the kind that is still most popular in Brazil, and the rest of the word) "soccer.""
"But fans tuning in at home are greeted by a different, somewhat more disturbing spectacle: news that YouTuber, prolific content creator, and protein-infused milk impresario Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has purchased the NFL. In a pregame preview airing on YouTube-which, for the first time ever, is broadcasting a regular-season NFL game globally, and for free-the platform's most valuable creator appears opposite league commissioner Roger Goodell, in a purportedly comical "sketch" about MrBeast's takeover of the league, which sees him assigning popular content creators to team rosters."
São Paulo hosted the NFL's first international regular-season game with local festivities including photo booths, merch tents, samba dancers, and a press conference where Patrick Mahomes backtracked after calling association football "soccer." YouTube broadcast the game globally and for free, featuring top creators and a MrBeast sketch with commissioner Roger Goodell portraying a comedic takeover assigning creators to rosters. Postgame stunts included awarding a Super Bowl LX ticket and firing a fan from a human cannon. Reactions were mixed, with some fans decrying the Gen Z-oriented production and others noting the platform's global reach for NFL expansion.
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