The NFL Kickoff Game won’t feature Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes in 2025. However, the Kansas City Chiefs could still get a particular fixture for their season opener, as they’re expected to play an AFC West rival outside the United States in Week 1.
According to Nate Taylor and Daniel Popper of The Athletic, the Chiefs are in serious consideration to be selected as the designated road team to play the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil in the first Friday of the season.
“According to multiple league sources, the Chiefs are the No. 1 franchise in consideration by the league to take on the Chargers in the standalone game that is up for bid among the league’s broadcasting partners,” the report reads.
In February, the NFL announced that it would host an international regular-season game at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo for the second straight year, this time with the Chargers serving as the home team on September 5.
Last year, that venue hosted the Philadelphia Eagles’ 34-29 victory over the Green Bay Packers in the first Friday of the 2024 campaign. The league could now return to South America with an exciting AFC West rivalry, with both the Chiefs and Chargers reportedly open to the idea of playing each other in Week 1.
Reid, Mahomes’ Chiefs willing to play outside the US
Speaking at the NFL owners meeting this week, Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt already made it clear that his team would be glad to play overseas. Therefore, the chance of seeing Mahomes and Reid show their magic overseas looks realistic.
“On playing international games, we’re willing to do it whenever the opportunity presents itself,” Hunt said, via Pro Football Talk. “We don’t have a lot of control over that, except periodically with whatever the rotation of the league is at where we can be the home team. We make the league aware every year that we would be delighted to play, whether as a home team or as an away team. We hope, at some point, we’ll get picked back up.”
International games in the 2025 NFL season
The Sao Paulo matchup will be one of seven international games to be played in the 2025 NFL season. Apart from Brazil, four more countries will get to host games: England, Germany, Spain, and Ireland.
London will host more games than any other city outside the US, with the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets hosting games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while the Jacksonville Jaguars were designated a home game at Wembley Stadium. The league will return to Germany but to a different city, as the Olympiastadion in Berlin will be home to a regular-season game for the Indianapolis Colts.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers’ appearance in Dublin will be the first-ever NFL game in Ireland, whereas the Miami Dolphins’ presence at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid will also be unprecedented for Spain.