NFL Paints Giant Mural on Paris Flag Football Field to Expand Global Reach
The NFL commissioned artist Jammie Holmes to create a supersized turf mural for its new Color Field initiative, debuting in Paris before the league's first regular-season game there. The move is part of a broader strategy to attract new audiences through art and social media.
The NFL is bringing fine art to the football field. A giant hand-painted mural by artist Jammie Holmes is being shipped from New York City to Paris, where it will be installed on the end zones of a flag football field beneath the Eiffel Tower. The installation, part of a new league initiative called Color Field, will be unveiled on October 23 and 24 during NFL Experience Paris, a free event designed to build excitement for the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in the French capital on October 25.
The artwork, a 2024 piece titled «Untitled», depicts a child emerging from morning glory flowers and explores the fleeting nature of beauty and success. A team of one field specialist and six muralists reproduced the painting onto two 15-by-50-foot strips of turf at a New York studio. The pieces were then packed and flown to Paris for installation on the playable flag football field. The league plans to turn the transport and rollout into social media content, giving fans around the world a behind-the-scenes look at the project.
Color Field is an expansion of the NFL’s growing efforts to connect with artists and creative communities. According to Ian Trombetta, the NFL’s senior vice president of global social, creator and content, the idea took root during the pandemic, when the league noticed a surge of fans posting their own NFL-inspired art online. «We started to think about ways in which we could celebrate those folks,» Trombetta said. That insight led to Artist Replay, an annual exhibition launched in 2023 that showcases work by artists inspired by the league, including Calvin Clausell Jr., Kayla Mahaffey and McFlyy, as well as current and former players.
The success of those events revealed a deeper overlap between the arts community and the NFL, prompting the league to scale up the concept. «As to the NFL investing in the space where sports and art meet, I see real potential,» Holmes said. «It can introduce new audiences to the world of art and build a genuine bridge between athletes and artists. There’s a lot of overlap; artists train with the same discipline athletes do.»
The Paris installation comes as the NFL stages its most internationally ambitious season yet, with nine games scheduled across Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City. Three of those markets — Melbourne, Rio and Paris — are entirely new for the league. As the NFL expands its global footprint, its marketing team is searching for ways to broaden its digital audience and attract local fans in new cities.
That strategy has already produced measurable results. In 2025, 30% of the audience watching the league’s TikTok draft week content was female, and 44% was between 18 and 24 years old — a significantly younger and more female audience than the NFL reaches during the regular season. Last year, internal data showed kickoff week video views rose 13%, minutes spent on social platforms increased 25% and engagements grew 6%, all records for a kickoff week.
The league has spent the past five or six years courting what it calls «growth audiences,» including women, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, through efforts such as embracing the media boost from Taylor Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and turning draft day into a social media spectacle. Color Field fits into that playbook by creating shareable moments that blend sports with culture.
The concept will continue beyond Paris. In December, a second iteration featuring a different artist will be installed on a field at Art Basel Miami Beach. Trombetta said more giant murals could appear on fields throughout the season depending on how the initial launch is received. «One of the fundamental goals that we have is to increase the reach of the NFL — meaning how many people we’re speaking to on a day-in, day-out basis,» he said. «Whether that’s through the game experience or through social media or through live events, there’s so many different touchpoints for us.»
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