NFL and Cisco expand partnership

The National Football League and Cisco have announced that the NFL is now leveraging Cisco’s industry-leading enterprise networking and cybersecurity solutions to connect and protect the NFL International Games. Through the agreement, the NFL will continue to rely on the same Cisco technology and expertise used for the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff to bolster their operations across a growing slate of international games, which includes matchups in São Paulo, London and Munich in 2024 and Madrid in 2025.

Over the past several years, the NFL and Cisco have worked together to develop a networking and cybersecurity playbook that is now coming to life across the partnership, leveraging the collective power of Cisco’s industry-leading networking, security and observability expertise and solutions. The NFL’s growing international operations are also leveraging this playbook, with solutions including switching for networking, and a combination of on-premises hardware and cloud-based software from the Cisco Security portfolio, including Cisco Umbrella, Cisco XDR, Cisco Firepower and Cisco Secure Malware Analytics. Cisco’s world-class CX services team continues to support the NFL from deployment to monitoring and troubleshooting in real-time.

"Cisco has been a trusted partner of the NFL for many years, providing the networking and cybersecurity technology that we rely on to connect and protect our biggest events, as well as our daily operations,” said Gary Brantley, Chief Information Officer at the NFL. “As we continue to expand our presence globally, Cisco’s proven track record in delivering on the biggest stages, in constantly evolving, digital environments, allows us to execute with confidence.”

On an international stage, the NFL requires a technological infrastructure that prioritises simplicity, visibility, reliability and protection. Cisco Secure Firewall helps the NFL with end-to-end visibility, simplified security management and network segmentation across distributed and hybrid networks, while Cisco XDR allows the league to investigate, prioritise and remediate the highest priority incidents with AI-enhanced speed, efficiency and decisiveness. The solutions across the Cisco Security portfolio complement each other to provide the highest level of security and confidence for the NFL and guest environments. This integrated, end-to-end deployment at Super Bowl LVIII this past February successfully blocked 39,000 security intelligence events and 354,000 connections to or from blacklisted areas of the world, ensuring 100% network uptime to keep the game and all its operations running smoothly.

“The NFL International Games presents an enormous opportunity for the NFL, so we are proud to be the partner they trust to deliver the connectivity and security required to operate globally,” said Rob McQueen, Vice President of Global Sponsorships at Cisco. “Failure is not an option in these dynamic, high-pressure environments, and Cisco technology continues to deliver for the biggest leagues, teams, events and stadiums everywhere.”

Cisco also sponsored the inaugural NFL Flag European Continental Series, which featured the Girls Under-14 national champions of five European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain. Athletes from these five teams attended the New York Jets versus Minnesota Vikings game on Oct. 6, and competed in a one-day tournament at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the following day.

Today’s announcement builds upon an existing relationship between the NFL and Cisco, which since 2021 has served as the Official Enterprise Networking Partner and an Official Cybersecurity Partner of the NFL, connecting and protecting the league and its operations 365 days a year. In addition, every NFL stadium’s replay control room is built on Cisco technology and connected back to the Art McNally Gameday Central in New York via a Cisco network, and nearly all of the league’s official partners and two-thirds of NFL stadiums rely on Cisco technology, including Levi’s Stadium and SoFi Stadium, sites of the Super Bowl LX and LXI, respectively.