THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Every Springtime the National Football League's fans in the United Kingdom – Americans and Brits - patiently await the announcement of who the league will be sending over to play in the season's International Series games, and with the addition of a game in Germany this year the anticipation was just as fierce as other years.
We all like to speculate on who will fly over, hoping its our favorite team, or the best players, or even the rookies that will get to visit after just being drafted. There might even be the rarest of things, a matchup of two teams with winning records. We can only hope, right?
Well, the wait is over! We now know the teams and venues for 2022, with kick off times as well.
October is usually the month of choice, and all three games that take place in London are slotted into that month, with the German game in November. As part of the League's expansion of regular season games to 17, it was decided that from this year onwards up to four of the teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth home game would instead be designated to play at a neutral site, hence the International Series coming into play.
With the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in North London being purpose-built for the NFL (a natural grass soccer pitch slides out of the way to magically reveal a permanent artificial surface gridiron field hidden beneath it) it was only right that they host two of the games. Wembley Stadium, for so long the traditional home of NFL games here, is the second venue. Tottenham will host back-to-back games, with a three week break before Wembley sees its gates open to the fans.
No strangers to these shores, the first game sees a third visit for both the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings, but this is the first time either will play at Tottenham. The last of the league's 32 teams to play in London, the Green Bay Packers, will make their debut when they play the New York Giants. The Giants have also visited twice before, and they take a unique step in this series of games as they first played at Wembley, then at Twickenham, and now complete the set at Tottenham. Jacksonville Jaguars, billed for so long now as London’s team, return to Wembley for the first time since 2019, a venue they made their home for seven straight seasons until they played at Tottenham last year. Their return sees them “host” the Denver Broncos, who last played at Wembley in 2010.
German fans are getting their first dose of NFL regular season action, when the now unretired Tom Brady takes his Tampa Bay Buccaneers to clash with the Seattle Seahawks in the Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern Munich. This game is a fortnight after the London games. The game slated for Mexico City has yet to be announced but will follow soon.
October 2 - Minnesota Vikings v New Orleans Saints – Tottenham Stadium – KO 14.30 BST
October 9 – New York Giants v Green Bay Packers – Tottenham Stadium – KO 14.30 BST
October 30 – Denver Broncos v Jacksonville Jaguars – Wembley Stadium – KO 13.30 GMT
November 13 – Seattle Seahawks v Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Allianz Arena KO 15.30 local
Tickets are expected to go on sale in June, with Mexico a month later. Exact dates of sales will be announced later this month.
To register for tickets and get news updates about each of these games, head to
www.nfl.com/internationalgames
The full schedule, including these games, for all 18 weeks of the 2022 season, for all 32 teams, will be released on 13 May at 01.00 BST
