How To Watch NFL Games On The Road

Watching your National Football League (NFL) team if you are traveling or live out of market can be really expensive and quite confusing.

There seems like an everchanging variety of streaming platforms, all with their own unique blackouts, limitations, and restrictions.

In addition to all the legal options, the quality and variety of unofficial (illegal) streams has also expanded.

But don’t worry, this post will help simplify the options and help you choose the best one for you.

Emily and I are often traveling and need to have a reliable way of watching our NFL teams on the road. And over many seasons of keeping up with our teams, we are proud to say that we hardly ever miss a game. So we can teach you how to watch NFL games, even out-of-market games when you’re on the road.

I am going to help you demystify the plethora of NFL streaming options, so you never miss a game this NFL season.

Below, I outline the best options for how to watch NFL out of market games on the road.

This post may contain affiliate links. Disclosure policy.

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NFL Sunday Ticket (Formerly With DirectTV)

The most reliable, but also most expensive way to watch out-of-market NFL games anywhere is NFL Sunday Ticket.

NFL Sunday Ticket Flips From DirectTV to Youtube

There are massive changes coming to NFL Sunday Ticket for the 2023-2024 season and beyond. After DirectTVs contract with the NFL expired, they signed a massive seven-year deal with Google’s Youtube for the rights to residential broadcasting of games.

[However, DirectTV will still retain the rights to commercial broadcasts, so that bars and restaurants can continue to offer games as they did before.]

In the past, you needed a DirectTV satellite and subscription to watch NFL Sunday Ticket. But the NFL is aiming to make NFL Sunday Ticket available for people streaming at home through Youtube TV and Youtube.

And it can be a little bit confusing because the pricing of Sunday Ticket will be different for YoutubeTV members and non-members.

The Price Of NFL Sunday Ticket

Now you might want to have a seat before I share the prices.

Youtube TV members get a cheaper price when bundling NFL Sunday Ticket. They can add NFL Sunday Ticket for $349, or $389 to include RedZone. (Get $50 off either subscription if you purchase before 09/19/2023)

Those purchasing a standalone Sunday Ticket through Youtube Primetime Channels can get NFL Sunday Ticket for $449, or $489 to include RedZone.

(Get $50 off either subscription if you purchase before 09/19/2023)

Wait, what is the difference between Youtube TV and Youtube Primetime Channels?

YouTube TV is a cable-TV replacement service, offering cable-TV channels, broadcast networks, DVR functionality, and live news. It costs $72.99 per month.

YouTube Primetime Channels is a feature on the regular Youtube.com video site. With Primetime Channels, users can add subscriptions to streaming platforms (Paramount+, STARZ, Sunday Ticket, etc) to access them all on one platform (Youtube). [Also, don’t confuse this with ‘primetime’ football games. The naming is unrelated and likely to be confusing for many sports fans]

One feature that is particularly exciting is “Multiview”. Youtube will allow you to watch multiple games at once. Kind of like making your own RedZone with just the games you care about.

What Is NOT Included in NFL Sunday Ticket

• Youtube NFL Sunday Ticket does not include:
• Locally broadcast Fox and CBS games (AKA in-market games). Not yet sure if you could use a VPN to get around this restriction.
• Sunday Night Football on NBC
• NFL Postseason Games
• Select Digital-Only Games
• International Games

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Sports Bars & Restaurants

The second option, which you might consider the old-school way, is to just go to a Sports Bar (or similar). This method can be really fun because you can get food and drinks, and often gain some friendly camaraderie with other people at the bar.

Or as a Patriots Fan, I more commonly find hecklers and people actively rooting against me and my team.

Most of the time it’s all in good fun, but occasionally you need to be cautious of people crossing the line between friendly competition and actual hostility.

One thing to be careful of is bars that claim to be a sports bar, but when you show up they only have like 2 TVs from 1999.

So if I can’t find a reliable chain, like Buffalo Wild Wings, I usually have to do a little research beforehand to verify their setup is sufficient.

I usually try to look at photos on Google or on their own website and get a sense of their TV setup. And also call ahead to verify that they have NFL Sunday Ticket (i.e. they can actually show your out-of-market game).

Getting Audio For Your NFL Game

The one issue with watching games at sports bars or restaurants is that you might not get to hear the live game audio.

It could be that the local team also has a game on at the same time. Or often with restaurants, they simply don’t ever play audio for their TV’s so it doesn’t disturb other customers. But it doesn’t hurt to ask the staff if they can play the audio for your game.

I do have one solution for the audio problem that I use occasionally. It is a free app called Tunity that’s available for iPhone and Android.

It’s amazingly easy to use. You simply open the app, point your phone’s camera at the TV and it will automatically pick up which channel it’s on and start playing the audio of that broadcast.

And it even has the ability to micro-adjust the timing so that the audio and video are perfectly in sync. You can just play the audio from your phone, or more discreetly, use headphones if you are worried about bothering other people or not being able to hear.

The Cost Of Watching NFL Games at Bars & Restaurants

The other factor to consider when watching at a sports bar/restaurant is the cost. How much money on average are you going to spend during a 3.5-hour NFL game at a bar? 

Now multiply that by 16 games (and possibly post-season games). The two of us usually spend about $50 total on food and drinks per game when I’m at a bar. So if we went out for every game for our two teams, our regular season price could be over $1000!

Suddenly the NFL Sunday ticket pricing doesn’t seem so bad. However, you are likely still going to be spending additional money on food and drinks at home, albeit much cheaper.

So you will just have to make an honest assessment of those costs.

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NFL Gamepass International

This was my personal favorite method for watching NFL games when traveling or on the road (But big changes for 2023 are giving me pause. Update at bottom of this section).

NFL Gamepass International offers fans abroad access to every NFL game, including playoffs, Superbowl, and RedZone.

NFL Game Pass International is $200 for the whole season, including playoffs.

With Gamepass, you also can re-watch any game from the whole season at any time. And it comes with a TON of bonus features.

After a game has been played, NFL Gamepass provides replays of the game broadcasts without any commercials. This allows you to watch an entire NFL game in about 2.5 hours.

Or better yet, they have a condensed version that cuts out everything except for the plays (and penalty calls) which allows you to watch an NFL game in about 45 minutes!!!

Other awesome bonuses are access to NFL Films and Originals, Coaches Film, HBO Hard Knocks, Good Morning Football, Sound Fx, and a bunch of other NFL content.

NFL Gamepass International is NOT available in the United States, Canada, China, and Russia.

However, in the past users from anywhere were able to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to change their server location and gain access to the Gamepass International.

A VPN is basically an extra secure and private way of accessing the internet. It acts almost like a bodyguard for your internet activity, allowing you to access region-restricted websites while also protecting your data and internet privacy.

Our preferred VPN is Surfshark, easy to use, super-cheap, and allows unlimited devices. (check out current Surfshark sign-up deals).

But this article claims that Gamepass will be cracking down on location spoofing techniques (such as VPNs, Tors, and proxies). Which would be a dagger to many people who have enjoyed this workaround in the past.

For the NFL junkie who wants the most access to all things NFL, Gamepass is definitely the best value option. You can literally watch every game, every week, if your heart desires. And there are no annoying restrictions or blackouts.

2023 Update: NFL Gamepass is seeing massive changes for the 2023-24 season and beyond. NFL Gamepass International is moving over to DAZN. The US version of NFL Gamepass is being discontinued, and pseudo-replaced by NFL+ (more info on that below).

So far the rollout of the new NFL Gamepass International has not been well-recieved. The communication of potential changes in pricing, features, and functionality has been totally botched.

This reddit thread gives a good sense of the issues that users are having (missing content, no TV-casting, and poor streaming resolution). Probably most frustrating is that live games are only streaming in 720p resolution, which is borderline unwatchable on a big TV.

So for now, many long-time users are cancelling Gamepass and taking a wait-and-see approach to gauge how this first season on DAZN goes.

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NFL+

NFL+ is a new mobile and tablet-only subscription service to watch NFL Games. It is only available in the US.

Users can access NFL+ on the NFL App.

The two pricing tiers are: NFL+ and NFL+ Premium.

NFL+ Subscription

With an NFL+ subscription, you get access to:

• LIVE local and primetime regular season games on mobile
• LIVE NFL Network on your phone
• Access LIVE and on-demand offseason content
• Listen to LIVE audio of every game

NFL+ costs $4.99/month or $39.99/year.

NFL+ Premium Subscription

With an NFL+ Premium subscription, you get all the features of NFL+ with the added benefits of full & condensed game replays and Coaches Film.

NFL+ Premium costs $9.99/month or $79.99/year.

As far as I can tell, NFL+ is replacing the US version of NFL Gamepass (since it is no longer offered). However, it’s not a direct replacement because it’s only limited to mobile devices and tablets.

The service will prevent users from casting to a TV or screen sharing.

NFL+ does not offer live out-of-market games. However, I am not certain yet if you can use a VPN to spoof your location, thus getting access to “out-of-market” games.

It will also include local and national radio calls for every game of the season, if you want to listen instead of watch.

NFL+ is at least a nice affordable option, but being limited to mobile and tablet is a huge bummer. Plus out-of-market games are potentially not available unless location spoofing is possible.

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Streaming Sites

Illegal streaming sites are another way of watching NFL games. The really attractive part of the method is that it is completely free. You just need a device to connect to the internet on.

But obviously, the negatives of this method are that you are breaking the law and these sites can be full of malware. Make sure you are running Adblock and a VPN (Surfshark Discount Code) if you decide to use this method.

Finding good NFL game live streams is always a bit like whack-a-mole. Authorities constantly cracking down on illegal streams, and new ones popping up to fill the void. A quick search of reddit usually turns up some good active streaming sites.

Up until about 2017, the video quality of streams wasn’t good enough to draw large numbers of people.

But in the last couple of years, the quality of illegal streams has caught up with HD TV broadcasts. Anyone with fast internet can usually find streams with excellent quality.

And I believe that this will start to become a problem for the NFL as more people start ditching their subscriptions for these high-quality illegal streams. Especially as they continue to charge an arm and a leg for legal access to NFL games.

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Yahoo Sports App

The Yahoo Sports app will no longer be streaming NFL games. This service has been replaced by a NFL+ subscription.

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Other Subscription Services to Watch NFL Games Without Cable

And below is a list of Live TV streaming services that have some restrictions, and typically, they only include local in-market games. But nonetheless still worth mentioning.

Keep in mind that they also typically include many movies, tv shows, and broadcast channels as part of their package.

However, many of these options still have restrictions that prevent NFL fans from watching their favorite teams how and where they want. And you don’t want to pay for something only to find out later that you will miss games.

With the ever revolving list of contracts the NFL makes with broadcasters and streaming platforms, it’s a complicated mess to figure out which games they provide.

Between the different time slots, and network partners like CBS, Fox, NFL Network, and ESPN, it’s rare that these new methods actually give you access to EVERY game.

You could pair a couple of different methods together in order to make sure that you have ALL NFL games covered.

And some have the option of adding NFL Redzone for an additional fee. But at typically only $10-$11 more per month, for many football fans it’s worth the extra cost.

(Prices updated 08/2023)

Hulu + LiveTV ($69.99/mo) – All local market “afternoon” games, plus Thursday Night Football, Monday Night Football games, and other bonuses.

Sling TV Orange + Blue ($55/mo) – Missing CBS games

Amazon Prime Video ($8.99/mo) – Thursday Night Football Only (Free trial available) Amazon has exclusive rights to TNF.

FuboTV ($85.98/mo) – Local games only, No Thursday Night Football. (Full list of restrictions here.)

Paramount+ ($4.99/mo) – Local CBS games for AFC teams only, regular season and playoffs (no Superbowl)

Peacock ($4.99/mo, free for Xfinity customers) – Sunday Night Football only

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Conclusion | How To Watch NFL Games On The Road

I hope you can find a good option above to watch NFL games when you’re traveling or living out of market.

It can be difficult to sort through all the prices, blackouts, and resctrictions.

NFL Sunday Ticket (now with Youtube) is still the best way to watch out-of-market NFL games. But sadly it’s quite expensive considering that it still excludes playoff games and the Superbowl.

NFL Gamepass International has been a longtime favorite for NFL Fans living abroad. But the transition to DAZN is causing some headaches as people are unsure of the features and quality moving foreward.

The NFL+ service is an interesting new mobile-only service. But unless VPN location spoofing works, it will only work for in-market games.

The lack of a perfect affordable option will continue to push NFL fans into watching via illegal streaming sites.

In Superbowl LVII, the perennial favorite Kansas City Chiefs edged out a hungry and formidable Philadelphia Eagles team. What excitement will this season hold?

(Related: How To Get Wifi and Internet On The Road.)