The NFL is working through the possibility of playing two games in Germany next season, with no games scheduled in Mexico due to stadium renovations, NFL executive vice president of club business and league events Peter O’Reilly said Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know:
- The NFL announced five international games in May for the 2022 season, including three games in London, one game in Germany and one in Mexico.
- NFL teams played their first-ever regular-season game in Munich, Germany at Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern, on Nov. 13.
- Quarterback Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat the Seahawks 21-16 in that game, with Brady calling it “one of the greatest football experiences” of his career.
Backstory
The league said there were 3 million requests for tickets for the 70,000-seat stadium for this year’s game in Germany, a testament to the rabid following there. While much of the league’s international efforts have focused on London in recent years, the NFL has maintained a relationship with Germany for decades.
In the 1970s, the league had plans for an Intercontinental Football League, including teams in Munich and West Berlin. The IFL was never more than a proposal, but they presented a 1976 summer exhibition between Texas A&I and Henderson State from Berlin’s Olympiastadion, which was built for the 1936 Olympics.
The first NFL preseason game in Berlin featured the Chiefs and Rams at a historic time in the city’s history, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. Read more about the history of the NFL in Germany here.
(Photo: Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)
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