'At least 50-50' chance Detroit Lions game vs. Kansas City Chiefs will be in Germany
Get your passports ready. The Detroit Lions could be headed overseas this fall.
Lions president Rod Wood told the Free Press on Monday there is "at least" a 50% chance the team will play a road game against the Kansas City Chiefs in Germany this November.
The Chiefs are one of five AFC teams that will "host" an international game this fall, and one of two teams scheduled to play in Germany.
The defending Super Bowl champions have a loaded schedule, with games against the Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills among the most appealing on their schedule.
NFL teams rarely play division games overseas, and Kansas City is allowed to protect several games to be played at Arrowhead Stadium. Given their schedule — they also host the Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders in division games, and Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears in non-division affairs — the Chiefs' most logical games to head to Germany are against the Lions and Bears.
The Broncos beat the Jaguars in London last season, the Dolphins played a game in London in 2021 and the Bills are scheduled to play overseas against a different opponent this fall.
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"I think it's, I don’t know if it’s better than 50-50 but it's at least 50-50 that the Chiefs game will be over there," Wood said. "We're kind of due to go international."
The Lions have not played an international game since 2015, when they lost to Kansas City, 45-10, in a Chiefs home game played in London. They were scheduled to play the Jaguars in London in 2020, when the NFL canceled its international games due to COVID-19.
Under the 17-game schedule, the NFL alternates host teams for most international games between AFC and NFC teams, with teams from the conference playing nine home games in a season — the AFC in 2023 — designated to host neutral-site games every year.
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Every NFL team must give up one home date every 10 years, Wood said, and the Lions president said he prefers to wait until later in the current scheduling cycle to forgo a game at Ford Field.
"Selfishly, I’d rather not give up a home game while we’re kind of on this upward trajectory," Wood said. "Every 10 years you have to give up one of your nine, so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen in (2024). I would rather have it be ’26 or later. If playing internationally this year buys us a year off that, that’d be OK."
Last year, Wood volunteered the Lions to be on the HBO docuseries "Hard Knocks." The Lions, who were one of three teams that could have been compelled to appear on the show last season, delivered big ratings for the show and went on to finish the season 9-8, their first winning record since 2017.
Asked if he volunteered the Lions for a trip to Germany, Wood smiled and said, "I put my feelers out."
"I think if you look at their schedule, I mean, I think you might have written about it. They’re not going to probably want to have a division game," Wood said. "They get to protect a certain number, too, so I think they wouldn't want to have a division game over there. They probably would rather play Cincinnati at home, Buffalo at home."
If the Lions play the Chiefs in Germany, they could go 28 years between playing games in Kansas City. The Lions have not played at Arrowhead Stadium since Dec. 14, 2003. Under the NFL's current scheduling formula, they are not slated to return to Kansas City until 2031.
Wood said he's not sure how that will factor into the international equation.
"That’s the one thing I don't know," he said. "And I think playing them not in Kansas City wouldn't be the end of the world."
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions may play Chiefs in Germany in 2023
