When the Packers and Giants kick off from London on Sunday, fans in England will be witnessing two things they've never seen before.
The first thing fans in London will be witnessing is a game between two teams that both have a winning record, which will mark the first time that's ever happened for a game played in England. The NFL has been playing games in London since 2007 and over that time, there hasn't been a SINGLE GAME that pitted two teams that BOTH had a winning record.
The Giants (3-1) game against the Packers (3-1) will end an unwanted streak of bad matchups that's lasted a total of 31 games over the past 15 years. Fans in London have come close to seeing the streak broken, but it's never happened. Before this year, we almost saw the streak end on multiple occasions with the most recent one coming in 2019 when the 5-3 Texans played the 4-4 Jaguars.
As you can tell by the streak, fans in London haven't gotten to see very many good teams over the years. In the 31 games that have been played since 2007, there have been nine teams that were winless when they played in London, but only one team that went into its international game undefeated (the Ravens in 2017).
Also, there's only been one team that went from playing in London to playing in the Super Bowl, and in a twist, it's one of the teams that will be playing on Sunday: The Giants. Back in 2007, the Giants played the very first game in London -- they beat the Dolphins -- and then they went on to shock the undefeated Patriots with a 17-14 win in Super Bowl XLII.
The other thing that fans in London will be seeing for the first time is a game involving Aaron Rodgers up close. Since 2007, the NFL has sent 31 of its 32 teams overseas, but the Packers had somehow avoided playing in London until this year. When they take the field on Sunday, every NFL team will have played at least one game in England.
The fact that it took the Packers this long to play their first game in London is somewhat surprising when you consider that there are seven teams that have already played at least three games in London (The Giants will become the eighth on Sunday). It took 15 years for the Packers to get sent to London because they didn't want to give up a home game at Lambeau and opposing teams were hesitant to give up a home game when the Packers were the visiting team because Green Bay draws well on the road. With a ninth home game added to the schedule this year, that opened the door for the Packers' debut in London to happen.
As for the Giants, if they somehow upset the Packers this week, they might go ahead and request to play all their games in London since they seem to be unbeatable there. In two London games, they're 2-0 and they only gave up 10 points per game
