Roger Goodell says international NFL teams are coming, so here’s what the Detroit Lions’ 2050 schedule could look like
Roger Goodell just said the quiet part out loud: NFL teams outside the United States are coming someday. So let’s get weird with it. What could the Detroit Lions’ schedule actually look like in that world? I built their 24-week schedule for 2050:
It’s been on my mind for a while. Ever since the Detroit Lions played their first international game in England a while back. The NFL does not want to be the National Football League forever. They someday want to be the World Football League.
That has never felt more real than it did than when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell essentially said it out loud on German television.
“At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA. I have no doubt that this will happen one day,” Goodell said in an interview for German station RTL/ntv.
I mean, there you go. The reason the NFL keeps playing international games is not that they just want to have something look cool on TV. It’s because they want to earn fandom in other countries. They’re trying to grow an appetite for American football everywhere.
Once they learn where they can do that, they’ll start putting teams there. This is something that is likely to take a while to get to. Don’t expect this any time soon. I’m 40 years old; I don’t expect to see this world until I’m like 60 or 70. Something like 2050.
As a matter of fact, let’s take a look at what such a thing would look like. Let’s start here. The NFL is probably going to keep adding games over the years. Right now, they’re working to get an 18-game season in the books. By 2050, with the inclusion of international teams and travel, it’s a 24-week season, and teams will get two bye weeks. Here’s what it could look like:
| Week | Opponent | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago Bears | 🏠 Detroit |
| 2 | Toronto 🇨🇦 | ✈️ Toronto |
| 3 | Dallas Cowboys | ✈️ Dallas |
| 4 | Green Bay Packers | 🏠 Detroit |
| 5 | Tokyo 🇯🇵 | ✈️ Tokyo |
| 6 | New York Giants | 🏠 Detroit |
| 7 | Minnesota Vikings | ✈️ Minnesota |
| 8 | Mexico City 🇲🇽 | 🏠 Detroit |
| 9 | Philadelphia Eagles | ✈️ Philadelphia |
| 10 | Munich 🇩🇪 | ✈️ Munich |
| 11 | Buffalo Bills | 🏠 Detroit |
| 12 | BYE | — |
| 13 | London 🇬🇧 — Thanksgiving 🦃 | 🏠 Ford Field |
| 14 | Vancouver 🇨🇦 | ✈️ Vancouver |
| 15 | Washington Commanders | 🏠 Detroit |
| 16 | Kansas City Chiefs | ✈️ Kansas City |
| 17 | Chicago Bears | ✈️ Chicago |
| 18 | São Paulo 🇧🇷 | ✈️ São Paulo |
| 19 | Seattle Seahawks | 🏠 Detroit |
| 20 | Switzerland 🇨🇭 | 🏠 Detroit |
| 21 | BYE | — |
| 22 | Green Bay Packers | ✈️ Green Bay |
| 23 | Miami Dolphins | 🏠 Detroit |
| 24 | Minnesota Vikings | 🏠 Detroit |
It would be crazy, right? But you still get some of the beats you’re used to. The Lions still play the NFC North teams twice, and they still host Thanksgiving. But now host Thanksgiving against London, and they have to head to Vancouver the next week.
It’s a lot. There’s no doubt about it, but this is probably the way the league is headed at some point. But imagine this from an even bigger standpoint. Eventually, you get to a world where American football becomes a huge worldwide thing, and then you go from all the players in the league being mostly American to a melting pot. You could have a Japanese-born quarterback handing the ball off to a German-born running back and then throwing to a receiver from Orlando, Florida, who beat a cornerback from Montreal. It’s a pretty cool thing to think about.
It would take a lot of groundwork to be done before it happens, though, so again. Don’t expect this anytime soon. The game has to get popular enough to have a team there; kids in different countries have to want to play American-style football to the point where universities want to have their own teams, and it gets bigger and bigger. I may never see it fully develop in my lifetime, but my nonexistent kids probably would.
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