Dave Portnoy went right at the NFL on Sunday after word surfaced that the league is still planning to send the Saints and Steelers to Paris for their Week 7 matchup despite unrest in the city.
According to a report posted Sunday on X by Adam Schefter, the NFL is moving forward with the trip overseas with only minimal changes to the plan, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters have reportedly lined the streets of Paris. Portnoy, the president of Barstool Sports, didn’t hide his reaction.
"This seems incredibly stupid," Portnoy posted.
The concern is straightforward: sending players into what has been described as an unstable environment creates obvious safety questions. Public figures like NFL stars could become targets or get caught up in the chaos, and any unexpected development could also throw the game itself into uncertainty.
The league has shown a willingness to stage games in tense settings before. Super Bowl 59 was played in New Orleans only weeks after a truck driver killed at least 14 people and injured 30 others in the French Quarter, and the issue now is whether the security setup for Paris will hold up just as well.
There’s also the travel side of it, and that may end up mattering as much as anything. The Saints and Steelers are facing the same awkward decision about how to handle the overseas trip, and the options are not exactly clean. The Rams and 49ers tried different approaches with mixed results: the Rams traveled on short notice and lost in a blowout in Week 1, while the 49ers stayed in Australia for a week in a relatively peaceful environment.
That leaves the Saints and Steelers with a tricky call. Do they make the last-second flight to Paris, the way the Rams did, or head out early like the 49ers?
With the situation in the city and both teams’ records entering the game, whatever was planned before the season may need to be adjusted. For now, there doesn’t seem to be a simple answer.
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