The Vikings Are Guinea Pigs
The NFL released the 2025 regular season schedule last week, and among head-turners, the Minnesota Vikings were announced as the first team in history to play back-to-back games in different foreign countries in as many weeks.
The Vikings are a trial run for the NFL this season, and other teams could follow their lead.
The Vikings will play against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin on September 28th and the Cleveland Browns in London a week later on October 5th.
An odd development indeed, Minnesota is a guinea pig, the team used as a trial for future experiments.
Vikings International Trip Is a Trial Run
Pro Football Talk‘s Mike Florio explained last weekend that the Vikings’ trip to Dublin and London is a grand experiment.
He wrote, “For the first time ever, an NFL team will play a pair of road games in two different European cities. It’s a sign of things to come. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the Vikings’ Week 4 game against the Steelers in Dublin followed by their Week 5 game against the Browns in London is trial run for the expanded use of multiple teams that will play in multiple European cities in consecutive weeks.”
“As soon as next year, there could be two or three teams that swap two traditional road games for a pair of neutral-site games in London and/or Dublin and/or Germany and/or Spain and/or elsewhere in Europe. (Sign me up for Bruges.) In 2026, those teams would likely come from the AFC, which will have nine road games in the current 17-game eight/nine home/away rotation.”
For now, Kevin O’Connell’s team is favored to win both games, according to oddsmakers.
Florio added, “Eventually, look for four franchises to serve as the ‘road’ team in (math is hard) eight European games. It’s all part of the NFL’s current plan to expand the number of international games to 16 per year. Which will be the approach unless and until the NFL drops a franchise or two (or four) in Europe.”
How the Arrangement Came to Be
An NFL schedule-maker, Mike North, hopped on a podcast last week, detailing Minnesota’s willingness to be the foremost team in the trial.
North said on The Ross Tucker Podcast: “When we got into international games, I basically reached out to all the teams, and said, ‘Hey Vikings, you see the schedule. You know, Pittsburgh is hosting a game in Dublin. You know you are a road opponent for the Steelers this year. There’s a chance you could be chosen to go to Ireland.”
“Subsequent phone call: ‘Hey Vikings, you know you’re playing the Browns this year. They’re hosting a game in London. You know you’re a possible opponent to play the Browns in London this year. And it was actually commissioner Goodell who said, ‘Do you think they’d want to do both?’, and I said ‘Absolutely not, no chance.”
North was wrong.
North continued, “But I called them and I talked to them and they went from open-minded to willing to kind of eager. And so we kind of partnered up with them, figured out a way to innovate, try something new here, and they worked with our ops team, and they’re going to spend the week over there, and it’ll be a good test for us.”
J.J. McCarthy on Ground Floor of the Experiment
The NFL is already featuring Vikings second-year passer J.J. McCarthy in oodles of games under the national spotlight. Dublin and London will provide the morning edition for American audiences in consecutive weeks.
Not only will McCarthy get his career off the ground, in general, this season, he’ll be front and center as the QB1 of the team undergoing the European trial run in addition to multiple primetime games.
Minnesota’s brass must believe he has the stomach for it.
Undefeated Abroad
Minnesota has undertaken eight foreign games since team inception, although four were exhibitions. In those eight games, various iterations of Vikings teams are undefeated. They’ve never lost outside the United States. 8-0.
Most recently, O’Connell’s team took down the New York Jets, led by Aaron Rodgers — Minnesota might play against him again in Dublin if he ever makes the Steelers rumors official — in London last October in a Week 5 showdown. It was the final installment of O’Connell’s 5-0 start to the 2024 campaign.
In short, Minnesota excels overseas.
Enhancing Homefield Field Advantage
Had the Vikings not agreed to and embraced the European trial, they would’ve fielded a normal schedule, hosting eight home games and venturing on the road for nine. It’s an “off” year for the NFC regarding homefield advantage.
But because the club has a vast global fandom, both contests in Dublin and London will carry some semblance of homefield advantage. That subtracts two hostile crowds.
In fact, this might be the smoking gun for Minnesota’s willingness to think progressively and think outside the box.
Two neutral-site road games that may feature a home crowd feel are better than audiences at Pittsburgh and Cleveland, which were guaranteed to be anti-Vikings. Minnesota will also have the perk of remaining in the United Kingdom for the transition in Week 5 — already adjusted and acclimated — when the Browns arrive for the October 5th meeting.
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