The Minnesota Vikings are set to make NFL history in 2025, now slated to become the first team to play international games in consecutive weeks but in different countries.
But before you conclude the league has unfairly set Minnesota’s season ablaze like a funereal Viking longship with a penal scheduling quirk, realize that there is plenty of upside at stake for a franchise still in pursuit of its first championship since entering the NFL in 1961.
Multiple people with intimate knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports that the Vikes sought the opportunity to participate in the league’s first regular-season game in Ireland – against the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 28 – followed by a matchup with the Cleveland Browns in London on October 5. (Both kickoffs will occur at 9:30 a.m. ET.) The people were granted anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation as the NFL’s 2025 schedule continues to slowly unfurl ahead of Wednesday night’s official reveal.
“The two-game trip,” Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell said Tuesday in a conference call with Irish media members, “gives us an unbelievable opportunity to take our team on the road, get away from a lot of the day-to-day things that may be pulling players in any other direction.”
O’Connell also admitted it’s preferable to face the Steelers at Dublin’s Croke Park rather than Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium. The Vikings will be the designated road team against the Browns, too, so they don’t lose a home game in this arrangement, either.
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“From a football side of it, both opponents that we’ll play,” said O’Connell, “have very high-quality home atmospheres in their home stadiums here in the United States. So to get to play them not at their home stadium – tough division, the AFC North tends to be year-in and year-out … we found that to be a potential bonus for our football team, as well as getting the opportunity to have a trip together where we can continue to build our team, our camaraderie.”
The flight from Minneapolis to the United Kingdom is comparable to a trip from Seattle to Miami – long but hardly unprecedented in the NFL. It’s also become rather commonplace for clubs playing back-to-back road games on the East or West Coasts of the U.S. to remain there for a week rather than take a cross-country flight home and back again between games.
“It was kind of a joint decision in conjunction with the NFL,” O’Connell later told members of London’s media corps. “The way I looked at it is from a standpoint of it being a positive opportunity – from both a football side and a business side for our organization. We’re very proud of our organization.”
The world stage also beckons All-Pro wideout Justin Jefferson, whose crossover appeal has continued to grow as he makes inroads into the fashion world and leverages media opportunities with international soccer stars, a path blazed to some degree by Odell Beckham Jr. a decade earlier.
“We do have some star power. Justin Jefferson, if (international) fans don’t know about him yet, they certainly will very soon,” said O’Connell.
“Getting the opportunity to see the best wide receiver – on the planet in my opinion – is a great start to getting to know the Minnesota Vikings.”
The Vikings, while serving as the designated home team, beat the New York Jets 23-17 in London last year to cap a 5-0 start to what became an unexpectedly strong 14-3 regular season. Overall, they are 4-0 in international games and have the most NFL victories abroad since 2005. They’re 4-0 in preseason games they’ve played internationally, too. The Jacksonville Jaguars have played consecutive games in London before but didn’t have to switch countries like the Vikes will.
It doesn’t hurt, either, that O’Connell and J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota’s new starting quarterback after missing his 2024 rookie campaign with a preseason knee injury, have Irish roots.
“Our experiences in London have always been memorable, so to return in 2025 as the first team to play in back-to-back international games in different countries was something we could not pass up,” Vikings owner and team president Mark Wilf said in a statement.
“UK fans have a history of showing up and embracing the Minnesota Vikings, creating what often feels like a homefield environment, and we are hopeful that is what we see again in 2025.”