Football Down Under

This season, the NFL will play its first-ever game in Brazil.  Next season, there will be a game in Madrid.  The next stop to be added to the slate of international games?  Looks like it might be Australia.  And it could be as soon as 2025.

Don't forget, in 2025, the number of international games goes from four to eight.  The Jaguars will continue to have their annual game in London (which doesn't even count as one of the four), and the other two games in London likely aren't going anywhere, either.  Then, even after you throw in Germany and Spain, that's still three more.  Mexico City will be back in the rotation soon enough, but probably not until 2026 since Estadio Azteca is still undergoing renovations for the World Cup.  So, it makes sense that Australia is the next market the NFL will want to tap into.

Melbourne appears to be the frontrunner to land the game, and discussions have already taken place between the NFL and the Melbourne Cricket Ground.  All of that seems to indicate Melbourne is all but a done deal.  All that's left is to dot the I's and cross the T's.  As well as, of course, deciding on the teams.  The Eagles and Rams both have international rights in Australia, so they'd seem to make the most sense.  But, with the Eagles already playing in Brazil this season, do you have the Rams go to Australia?

Two other key details that would need to be figured out involve when the game would be played!  Both the date and the time.  The AFL Grand Final, the championship game of the Australian Football League is at the end of September, so you'd figure it would have to be after that.  Which likely means October or even early November, which is the Aussie Spring.

Figuring out the date is actually the easy part.  Figuring out the time is a totally different challenge.  Melbourne is 14 hours ahead of the East Coast of the United States...17 hours ahead of the West Coast.  It's not as easy as scheduling the games in Europe, which is only five hours ahead and gave the NFL a totally new broadcast window at 9:30 on Sunday mornings!  That wouldn't work in Australia, where 9 AM is midnight.

The way I see it, there's only one real viable option that makes sense for both the Australian and U.S. time zones.  You play on Monday afternoon/Sunday night as that week's Sunday Night Football game.  Or, it could be on Tuesday afternoon/Monday night.  Friday afternoon/Thursday night isn't really a viable possibility since that would require traveling to Australia on a short week...unless both teams were coming off their bye.

That's another factor that needs to be considered.  Teams returning from Europe don't necessarily have their bye the following week anymore.  And the Packers-Eagles game in Brazil is in Week 1, so they obviously won't get a bye after it.  With Australia, though, they'd have to.  It's simply too great a distance and too much of a time difference to expect them to play again the next week.  So, they'd either have to get their bye before playing a Friday afternoon/Thursday night game, which would give them the long week to recover before playing again on Sunday, or have their bye immediately after playing in Australia.

Personally, I think the second option would be better.  The NFL can easily pick two teams that would be an attractive Sunday Night Football matchup, guarantee it won't be flexed out (obviously), then take the whole operation Down Under that week.  It would be a marquee game played in the middle of the season at a unique location.  Just imagine how much NBC and the NFL would play that up!  Seems like the best possible scenario.

Since the Rams already have territorial rights in Australia and it's "only" 8,000 miles from Los Angeles to Melbourne, they'd seem to be the logical choice as the home team.  The Rams are certainly an attractive enough team in their own right to warrant a Sunday night selection, and their 2025 schedule has a few matchups that would definitely work.  It seems unlikely they'd play a Rams-49ers game overseas, but they also host the Texans, Bucs and an NFC North opponent.  If that's either the Packers or Lions, that could be your choice right there.

Australia isn't the only place being considered as a site for a future NFL international game.  Dublin hosted Notre Dame-Navy last season and is on the NFL's shortlist.  That one seems like a no-brainer.  Whether it's for 2025 or later on, Dublin will almost certainly be added to the NFL's list eventually.  Especially since Dublin was the only other location specifically mentioned as having already been visited by the NFL.

Where are some of the other places the NFL might consider?  Well, you'd have to figure they'll look to further increase their presence in Europe.  Rome and Milan seem like possibilities in Italy, and the idea of a game at the Stade de France seems like too much to resist!  Likewise, once upon a time, the Barcelona Dragons and Amsterdam Admirals were two of the more successful teams in NFL Europe.  So, it's not hard to imagine playing a regular season NFL game in either of those two cities (although, Barcelona would have to wait until the renovations at Camp Nou are complete).

And, while the NFL doesn't seem too focused on Asia right now, you've gotta figure that'll change eventually.  They look all set to go to Australia, which has very similar logistical issues as Asia.  So, if the Australia game goes well, Asia would seem to be not too far around the corner.  Tokyo's got a shiny, quasi-brand new Olympic Stadium.  China's got a billion people.  And there are a lot of American servicemen in Korea, which could make Seoul a very attractive option.

Regardless of where they go, the NFL will undoubtedly add new cities and countries to its slate of international games.  That was the entire point of doubling it from four to eight games a season and requiring every team to "host" one at least once every four seasons.  So, the NFL international games aren't going away (as if anyone thought they would).  We're getting more, as the NFL continues to expand its reach into new overseas markets.

Brazil this year, Spain next year, Australia after that.  Where else in the future?  Who knows?!  The possibilities really are endless.