Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers will play their first overseas regular season game against the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 9.
The week before, the New Orleans Saints will nominally host the Minnesota Vikings in north London, with the Jacksonville Jaguars competing in their ninth game in London – and eighth at Wembley – against the Denver Broncos on October 30.
German fans are in for a treat too. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Seattle Seahawks at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena on November 13.
NFL will return to London this October, with Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosting two games
Green Bay Packers - led by Aaron Rodgers (R) will make their London debut against the Giants
The slate sees the total games in London rise from last season’s two as the NFL pushes its overseas programme. After revealing a new deal which will see every team play overseas until 2028, the NFL appears determined to showcase some of its biggest names, for this season at least.
Few are bigger than the Packers, the NFL’s most storied franchise. Formed in 1919 and situated in Wisconsin, the Green and Gold draw from a large fan base across America and Europe. Demand for the game will be high.
Before the AFL-NFL merger in 1967, the Packers won 11 national championships. Since then, they have won four Super Bowls.
It will give fans the chance to see the great Rodgers playing live. One of the NFL’s more divisive figures – he claimed to be ‘immunized’ against Covid before revealing he was not vaccinated – what cannot be disputed is his ability on the field.
Green Bay have won the NFC North for the past three seasons, but for all their regular season success their continued failure in the playoffs is a mark against 2011 Super Bowl champion Rodgers.
The New York Giants are a team in transition after 22 wins in their last five seasons
Tottenham signed a huge deal with the NFL to stage games at their new stadium in 2015
The Packers’ opponents remain a team in transition. The Giants have won just 22 games in their last five seasons. It is a far cry from their heyday in the mid-Eighties, with icons such as Lawrence Taylor wreaking havoc in Bill Belichick’s defense - and the team which won two Super Bowls against Belichick’s New England Patriots in the 2008 and 2012.
The Vikings and Saints have forged an unlikely rivalry. The teams met in the 2009 NFC Championship game, won by New Orleans in controversial fashion.
It is a defeat which still rankles with Vikings fans as the Saints – who went on to win a tainted Super Bowl – committed some disgraceful and unpunished hits on then Vikings quarterback Brett Favre.
Following their Super Bowl win, head coach Sean Payton was banned for an
