THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The National Football League is releasing the full schedule for the 2025 season this week, and in a move which has become a trend, has announced the International slate before the domestic games. This is aimed at avoiding leaks, although that is proving more difficult each year as somehow news does break.
We already knew the home teams that would be participating in the London games. This fuels anticipation as to who the opponents will be. The way the NFL works its schedule is by way of rotation, so in a cycle, teams know their actual opponents many years in advance, although obviously without knowing the actual order.
For 2025 there is even more excitement, as new countries and venues will be visited, the league expanding its international markets even more. The growth has been nothing short of phenomenal. We knew the market was strong across Europe, so it was only a matter of time before we saw more games in Germany, and now they have added Spain. A big move, though, and closer to home for fans in the United Kingdom, was the news that Ireland would be hosting an NFL game.
With the Pittsburgh Steelers' strong connections with the Irish-American Rooney family it was only fitting that they would be the ‘home' team at Dublin's first NFL game. Incidentally, on nine occasions since 1988 Dublin has hosted College Football games to start the college season; this year it's Kansas State v Iowa State on August 23.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have strong roots in London; their owner, Shahid Khan, also owns Fulham FC and has always liked his Jags team playing at Wembley, which has been the spiritual home of the NFL in London since the early 1980s. There was even a game during World War 2 with servicemen playing. In modern times, since 2007, regular season games have been played in London. Now, with more countries on board, there are rumors that there could eventually be a week where all teams play overseas... but that's for another time.
This year the Minnesota Vikings will play back-to-back games away from North America as they play two road games. They will be the visiting team when the Steelers play in Dublin, and then a week later play in Tottenham when the Cleveland Browns play host. This is the first time a team will play outside of America in two games in different countries in the same season.
The full list of International games for this season is below, and one team is yet to be announced, but will be part of the upcoming schedule release.
Alongside this, the league also said that the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles, will start their season with the now traditional Thursday Night Football kick-off game against divisional rival Dallas Cowboys, on September 5.
Pittsburgh Steelers v Minnesota Vikings in Dublin, Ireland - Week 4, Sept. 28
Cleveland Browns v Minnesota Vikings in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – Week 5, Oct. 5
New York Jets v Denver Broncos in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – Week 6, Oct. 12
Jacksonville Jaguars v Los Angeles Rams in London at Wembley Stadium – Week 7, Oct. 19
Indianapolis Colts v Atlanta Falcons in Berlin – Week 10, Nov. 9
Miami Dolphins v Washington Commanders in Madrid – Week 11, Nov. 16
The game in São Paulo, Brazil has the Los Angeles Chargers as the home team with their opponent to be confirmed.
