NFL International Series

The Miami Dolphins hosted the New York Giants in the first International Series game at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on October 28, 2007. The Giants defeated the Dolphins 13–10 in the first regular season NFL game held outside North America. The first 40,000 tickets sold out for the game in the first 90 minutes of sales.[3][21] The game was aired regionally on Fox.

A single game was held in London each year through 2011. Like the 2007 game, each was televised nationally in the United Kingdom, but only regionally in the United States.

NFL International Series game between Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars in London

On January 20, 2012, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed that from 2012 to 2014, the St. Louis Rams would play one of their eight home games each year at Wembley Stadium.[22] However, on August 13, 2012, the team announced that they would not play the proposed games in London in 2013 and 2014, only the 2012 game against the New England Patriots that had already been scheduled.[23] Goodell had previously proposed the use of certain regular teams in the International Series in an effort to build a fan base for those teams, raising the prospect of a permanent NFL team on the British Isles.

An NFL bid to become anchor tenants of London's Olympic Stadium failed.[24]

The Jacksonville Jaguars took the Rams' place and agreed to play a home game in London for four seasons from 2013 through 2016. With this announcement also came news that the NFL were working to schedule a second UK game from 2013 onwards[25] (the Jaguars later extended their agreement with Wembley Stadium through 2020 in an agreement announced in October 2015).[2] In October 2012, it was announced that the Jaguars would host the San Francisco 49ers and the Minnesota Vikings would host the Pittsburgh Steelers, marking the first season with multiple games in London.

The NFL played three international games for the 2014 season, including one game with an earlier 9:30 am ET (2:30 pm UK time) start, which allowed for an afternoon game, rather than an evening game, in London. This timeslot proved to be successful as all London games in 2015 and 2016 were also scheduled at 9:30 am ET. Three games were again scheduled in 2015 – including the series' first division game between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins.

NFL London and Mexico Games logos, first used in 2016 in Mexico and 2017 in London.

On July 8, 2015, the NFL and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. announced they had reached a 10-year deal to host at least two London Games a year at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from its opening year in 2019.[26] Additionally, on October 7, 2015, the league announced that a resolution had been passed to schedule international games at additional locations to London until 2025.[12] Subsequently, on October 22, 2015, it was confirmed that at least two games per season would remain at Wembley through at least 2020 and that the Jacksonville Jaguars will continue to play a home game there annually throughout the agreement.[27] Another stadium deal was confirmed on November 3, 2015, when the league announced they had reached an agreement with England's Rugby Football Union to host regular season games at Twickenham Stadium from 2016 onwards, with a minimum of three, and as many as five games to be held over the initial agreement period of three years.[28]

In 2016, the Oakland Raiders hosted the Houston Texans on November 21 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, at the first International Series game played in Mexico. Previously, the Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers had expressed interest in playing a game at Estadio Azteca (or possibly Estadio Olímpico Universitario) in Mexico City, although Houston was not prepared to give up a home date.[29][30] It was televised as part of ESPN's Monday Night Football, marking the first MNF game broadcast from outside the United States, and ESPN's second broadcast from Mexico City since the 2005 Fútbol Americano game (which was televised as part of ESPN's former incarnation of Sunday Night Football).[31][32]

The 2016 game between the Redskins and Bengals was the first International Series game to go into overtime, the first to end as a tie, and had at the time the highest attendance of all International Series games (later surpassed by the 2017 game between the Ravens and Jaguars, which drew an attendance of 84,592).

For 2017 the series underwent a partial rebrand with four games in London branded as NFL London Games[33] and one game in Mexico City branded as the NFL Mexico Game.[34]

In January 2018, it was announced that three games would be played in London that year, with two at Wembley and the other the first game at Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium. However, it was later confirmed that the opening of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would be delayed and therefore all three games would be held at Wembley.[35] Having already fulfilled the minimum three-game requirement for Twickenham Stadium in 2017, the league would no longer host games there.[36] The Mexico City date and opponents were not announced at that time, but were later confirmed as the Los Angeles Rams playing as designated home team against the Kansas City Chiefs. This game was subsequently moved to Los Angeles due to poor field conditions at Estadio Azteca.[37]

In October 2018, the league confirmed four London Games would take place in 2019. Wembley Stadium would host two and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would host the remaining two. The Jacksonville Jaguars would return to Wembley Stadium for the seventh consecutive year in line with their annual commitment.[38] The final schedule was announced in April 2019 alongside that of the rest of the regular season.[39] This marked the end of the Los Angeles Chargers', Los Angeles Rams' and Oakland Raiders' annual commitments, with all three moving to new stadiums in 2020.

In November 2019, the Atlanta Falcons[40] and Miami Dolphins[41] were announced as home teams for 2020 games in either London or Mexico City.

On February 4, 2020, it was announced that the Jaguars would play two home games at Wembley Stadium on consecutive weekends in 2020, the first time a team had done so. 2020 would also have been the final year of games at Wembley Stadium and the final year of the Jaguars' agreement to host annual home games there.[42] On February 28, 2020, it was announced that the Arizona Cardinals would host a game in Mexico City. Their hosting was due to the awarding of Super Bowl LVII to the State Farm Stadium in 2018. The Cardinals would have returned to Estadio Azteca for the first time since 2005's Fútbol Americano game. The date and opponent were not announced at the time.[43] On May 4, 2020, the league announced that all international games for 2020 have been moved back to the home stadiums of the designated home teams due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[44]

On April 1, 2021, the Atlanta Falcons announced their intention to play a home game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in October 2021.[45] On May 11, it was reported that the Falcons and Jaguars would each host a game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.[46] This was confirmed the following day.[47] This would mark the Jaguars' eighth home game in London but their first at Tottenham.

The National Football League announced the International Home Marketing Areas initiative, where 18 NFL teams have been selected to freely market their team across eight countries, starting in January 2022.[48] Teams were selected based on their proposals submitted to the NFL, along with the performance of their marketing domestically.[49] The following teams were granted the five-year initiative that will allow marketing methods such as in-person events, sponsorships, and merchandise sales, as well as a high priority to compete in the countries granted in:

Country	Team
Australia	Los Angeles Rams
	Philadelphia Eagles
Brazil	Miami Dolphins
Canada[lower-alpha 1]	Minnesota Vikings
	Seattle Seahawks
China	Los Angeles Rams
Germany	Carolina Panthers
	Kansas City Chiefs
	New England Patriots
	Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Ghana	Philadelphia Eagles
Mexico	Arizona Cardinals
	Dallas Cowboys
	Denver Broncos
	Houston Texans
	Kansas City Chiefs
	Las Vegas Raiders
	Los Angeles Rams
	Pittsburgh Steelers
	San Francisco 49ers
New Zealand	Los Angeles Rams
	Philadelphia Eagles
Spain	Chicago Bears
	Miami Dolphins
United Kingdom	Chicago Bears
	Jacksonville Jaguars
	Miami Dolphins
	Minnesota Vikings
	New York Jets
	San Francisco 49ers

Notes

On February 9, 2022, the NFL confirmed the addition of the Germany Games to the International Series slate, initially with one game each year from 2022 to 2025. Mark Waller had previously stated in 2017 that the only holdup with games in Germany was what he dubbed "an inventory management thing," in that with four games already being played in London each year, adding additional games in Germany atop those four would pose logistical problems.[52] The addition of a 17th game to the schedule in 2020 has the potential to provide up to 16 neutral site games to be held in venues that do not host NFL teams, including outside the United States.[53] The league began gauging interest from German cities regarding potential games in June 2021; the league viewed Germany as an ideal candidate for expansion of the International Series because of the country's high viewership for NFL games (2.2 million people in Germany watched Super Bowl LV) and the country's numerous modern stadiums.[54] In October 2021, it was confirmed that Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich had been invited to participate in deeper conversations about hosting NFL games.[55]

In March 2022, the Jaguars confirmed they had reached an agreement with Wembley Stadium to host an annual game through 2024.[56]

Within the United Kingdom, aside from London, potential candidates for hosting NFL games include the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales;[65] and Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland.[66] Other prime locations to get games would be Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland (Ireland has already hosted the NCAA Emerald Isle Classic, a college football game similar to the International Series, and former Steelers owner Dan Rooney was once an ambassador to the country), Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;[67] China,[68] Brazil,[69][68] Australia[70] and Canada (Canada hosted the Bills Toronto Series from 2008 to 2013 and a preseason game between the Green Bay Packers and the Oakland Raiders at IG Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2019). In 2007, NFL senior Vice President Mark Waller doubted Asia or Australia would be targeted because of travel concerns, but did not dismiss the possibility.[5] The league had planned to host a game in China in 2018 with the Los Angeles Rams as the home team against the San Francisco 49ers.[71] The potential game in China was postponed (the third time the league has postponed playing in China, following failed attempts in 2007 and 2009) to being aimed for the 2019 season to coincide with the league's 100th anniversary; that game ultimately was not scheduled for 2019.[72][73] The league has indicated that a China game is still not certain because of the lack of a fan base in the country; NFL games are played in the middle of the night in China.[52] Other potential problems include whether the stadiums in China are suitable to play an NFL game and Beijing's notoriously poor air quality. The topic of a 2020 preseason game in China was discussed in the 2019 owners' meetings, but no news came out of those meetings.[74]

The success of the International Series has led the NFL to focus its global expansion aims on the possibility of having a full franchise located in London. It is believed this would be most likely achieved through relocation of an existing franchise, with the Jaguars most often linked due to their association with the International Series, even though their owner is said to be content with the current arrangement and other franchises have more reason to move (the most often cited being poor on-field performance, lack of fans and uncertainty over stadium leases). The NFL has used some of the specific arrangements for the International Series games as a test bed for predicting how a London franchise could be made effective from a logistical and competitiveness standpoint.[75][76]

Prior to the start of the 2019 season, the "extreme long shot" possibility arose that the Oakland Raiders, due to legal disputes with the city of Oakland and Alameda County, could play all of their home games in London in 2019; they were already slated to host one regular season game abroad and also played one of their preseason games in Winnipeg. Cost and logistics concerns left this scenario unlikely and was rendered moot when the Raiders and city and county officials ultimately reached an agreement to allow the Raiders to remain at the Oakland Coliseum through the 2019 season, before moving to Las Vegas in 2020.[77][78]