The Lions made sure they won’t play either of these two games in Germany in 2026

The Lions may be playing a home game in Germany, but it won’t be against either one of these teams

Mike Payton Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff (16) cheers for teammates as they get ready to take the field for warm up at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri on Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025.
© Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Detroit Lions are heading to Munich, Germany, to play a game during the 2026 season.

At this point, we don’t know who the Lions will face and whether or not it counts as a home game or an away game. Logically, it feels like with the amount of work the Lions have done to get popular in Germany, this thing is going to be a home game for them.

Thanks to current Lions team president Rod Wood, we now know which two home games they won’t be playing in Germany.

The Lions will not play the Green Bay Packers or the Minnesota Vikings’ home games in Germany

Wood told Dave Birkett and the Detroit Free Press on Sunday that the Lions protected these two games. When teams agree to play an international game, they are allowed by the league to block two games from being played in that international game.

In addition to that, Wood also said that he “had a hard time believing that” the Lions would face the Bears there. He also said that the Lions will look to make sure they don’t wear their new Nike Rivals jerseys in Germany if they wind up scheduled against one of their NFC North rivals. Teams can only wear these jerseys against division rivals. Wood also did not say when that look would be released.

In terms of the NFC North games, Birkett brought up a good note. The NFL tends to schedule some of these games at the end of the year, and the Lions have played an NFC North team on Thanksgiving the last three years in a row. So it makes sense that Detroit doesn’t play any Divisional games in Germany. But we’ll see in May when the schedule gets released.