GREEN BAY — While the focus was on his passing of the presidential torch to successor Ed Policy at Friday afternoon’s annual shareholders meeting at Lambeau Field, outgoing Green Bay Packers president/CEO Mark Murphy said something intriguing about the NFL’s international plans that got lost in the wash of the weekend news cycle:

That the NFL intends to have all 32 teams play one international game each season in the not-too-distant future.

“Unfortunately,” Murphy pointed out, “we’re 0-2 in our international games.”

Those losses came in 2022 to the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and in last year’s regular-season opener to the Philadelphia Eagles at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil.

Despite being rumored as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ opponent for the NFL’s first game in Ireland this season, the Packers won’t leave the U.S. this season, having not been selected for one of the seven international games on the schedule.

Those seven games include two involving the rival Minnesota Vikings, who stay in Europe to play back-to-back weeks against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin (Sept. 28) and against the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur (Oct. 5).

The league is playing another game in São Paulo (the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Los Angeles Chargers on Sept. 5), three games in London and single games in Berlin, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and Dublin.

“Going forward,” Murphy said, “that’s going to increase dramatically.”

Right now, the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association permits 10 international games per season.

Earlier this offseason, Murphy said he expected the Packers to play outside the U.S. every other year because of their popularity.

But on Friday, he predicted it will be an every-year occurrence once the league moves to an 18-game regular-season schedule, which most observers agree is coming — sooner or later.

“I anticipate [that] at some point,” Murphy said of annual international games.

Speaking on NFL Network on Saturday, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank echoed that expectation, saying an “international game every year for every team” is “probably on the horizon.”

Right now, with an imbalanced 17-game regular-season schedule, half the league’s teams have nine regular-season home games and the other half have eight.

The Packers had nine home games in 2022 and gave up one at the league’s behest to play in London; last year, they got to play all nine of those home games at Lambeau Field because the Brazil game was technically the Eagles’ home game.

Shifting to an 18-game regular season and two-game preseason schedule would have to be collectively bargained between the league and the NFLPA. Given the tumultuous few weeks the union has had, those talks — with the current CBA set to expire after the 2030 season — are a long way off.

“A lot is up in the air quite honestly with what’s going on with the NFL Players Association, the change in leadership,” Murphy said. “I think at some point in the future I would anticipate we would go to 18 regular-season games and two [preseason games] and that would give you a little more flexibility to play international games.”

Asked why he felt the league and commissioner Roger Goodell are so dedicated to expanding the international schedule, Murphy replied, “It’s a long-term play. The results are not going to be immediate. I think for the league, the benefits of this will be much clearer 5, 10 years down the road. But you’re building a fan base.”

Packers safety Xavier McKinney played in that 2022 London game as a member of the Giants and the loss to the Eagles in São Paulo was his first game as a Packer.

Asked after practice Friday about the idea of going abroad every year, McKinney said he would be fine with it, although he did add that the league should go to a two-bye week schedule to allow players to recover from the long travel days.

That said, his greater issue was with where the games are staged. He pointed out that for last year’s game against the Eagles, the Packers were hunkered down at their team hotel due to safety concerns.

“I wouldn’t mind it as long as we can move around. Brazil was cool, but we couldn’t go nowhere and we couldn’t do anything,” McKinney said. “It’s like, it’s cool, but if we can’t get to really experience where we’re at, then it’s like, what are we really doing?

“I like the idea, but I think it needs to be a place where it’s safe enough for us to be able to explore as well while we’re there.”

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