Getty Fans outside the stadium before Lions vs. Falcons in London in 2014.
It’s been a while since the Detroit Lions played across the pond in Europe, but that could be finally set to change during the 2022 NFL season.
The Lions are one of the teams to have an extra home game this coming year, and there is a growing consensus that it could be used in conjunction with a trip back overseas to play a game from their 2022 schedule.
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MLive.com’s Kyle Meinke was one of the scribes to be raising immediate questions about whether or not the Lions would be involved in the league’s international series for the 2022 season. As Meinke aptly pointed out, the Lions have never had to give up a home game and do have an extra one for this coming year.
“You gotta wonder if the Lions will land in one of these games this year. They haven’t had an international game since 2015 and are on the short list of teams that has never had to give up a home game. They have an extra one this year, too,” Meinke tweeted.
If the Lions were to play overseas, it would be the first time in six years they will have done so. The team last made back-to-back trips to London in 2014 and 2015. Since then, though, they have been a franchise that the league has kept in America.
That could be set to change in a big way, and perhaps with a special new location.
NFL Revealed Germany Series Starting With 2022 Season
Where will the Lions go? While they have played in London before, the franchise has yet to play in a different spot, with the NFL also having games in Mexico. The league revealed that they would be set to host games in Munich as well as Frankfort from 2022 to 2025, with a pair of games set to be played in each host city.
🇩🇪 Now official 🏈
Munich will stage first-ever NFL regular season game in Germany. The NFL will play four games in Germany from 2022 to 2025. Two of them in Munich and two in Frankfurt.
Here´s the press release
Perhaps ironically, as soon as this news was revealed, the Lions Twitter account posted an update which showed a bit of German flair.
Stud rookie wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown is half German, so this type of event would no doubt be special for him if it happened, and could give the league a shot to market one of their few German stars to an international audience. For this reason, Detroit could be seen as a team to watch in a big way with regards to a potential game in either Munich or Frankfort when the series gets announced.
Lions History With International Games
The Lions don’t have a long history with playing internationally, but it has happened before. In their first appearance internationally, Detroit and Atlanta squared off in 2014 in London, with the Lions pulling out an exciting 22-21 victory in the last seconds courtesy of a Matt Prater field goal. It was one of the more exciting Lions finishes in recent memory:
Detroit played the Kansas City Chiefs in London the very next year in 2015, losing 45-10 in blowout fashion. Since then, the Lions have not gone overseas, and have been one of the teams to avoid the trip as well as the extra long travel. In 2020, rumors swirled that the Lions could play Jacksonville in London, but those rumors never proved true, and the team ended up tangling with the Jaguars at their home in Florida.
The league could be primed to send Detroit back across the pond this season for a game. As always, time will tell whether that ends up being the case or not. Lions fans will have to stay tuned to see if their passports will require an update ahead of the 2022 NFL season.
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