By Jordan Long
The NFL has 5 international games for the 2022 season. The Arizona Cardinals will be the home team for Mexico. London home teams are the Green Bay Packers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the New Orleans Saints. For the first time in NFL regular season history, Germany is going to host a game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the home team. The visiting teams are going to be announced when the NFL schedule comes out which is likely going to be in May.
The NFL is looking forward to these games. According to NFL.com, NFL Executive Vice President of Club Business And League Events, Peter O’Reilly said, “We are very excited to be staging five games outside the United States in 2022, and thank the clubs for their continued commitment to growing the sport internationally. Our fans in Germany, Mexico, and the UK can look forward to seeing some of the most iconic names and biggest stars in the League and enjoying an incredible series of events.”
The Denver Broncos could be one of the away teams. The Broncos were scheduled to play the Atlanta Falcons in 2020 in London with Denver as the away team. Of course, the COVID 19 Pandemic made the NFL change plans for that game. Denver played the Falcons but it was in Atlanta. The Broncos lost to the Falcons in week 9, 34-27.
The Broncos haven’t played an international football game since week 8 of the 2010 season. They faced the San Francisco 49ers at Wembley Stadium in London, England but they dropped that game 24-16. Of course, this was when Video Operations for the Denver Broncos Steve Scarnecchia illegally videotaped the San Francisco 49ers walkthrough the night before the game. The NFL fined the Broncos’ franchise $50,000 and Head Coach at the time, Josh McDaniels, received the same fine for the incident. This was the beginning of the end for McDaniels as Head Coach of the Denver Broncos. He was let go 6 weeks later. Denver at that time was 3-9.
Denver only has two opponents that they will face this upcoming season who are playing international games. Those are Arizona and Jacksonville. Arizona wouldn’t work. The Broncos are going to host them so they will not be traveling to Mexico. Jacksonville is the more likely opponent.
Jacksonville has been the home team for one London game since 2013. The only season they didn’t was in 2020 when no NFL teams went due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. The Broncos will travel to Jacksonville for an away game this upcoming year. This could be the Broncos’ only chance to play a game in London.
The NFL schedule will come out later, most likely it will be in May. The Broncos will know for sure if they will make the trip to London, England. It seems like Denver could be but the NFL may decide to send another team to face Jacksonville.
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