USAT: Saints Wire audio clip

USAT: Saints Wire

Feb 18, 2022

- - - It somehow flew under the radar last year, but the NFL revised and expanded its rules for scheduling games in its international series (you can read the official breakdown from NFL.com here). And the New Orleans Saints will be one of the first teams to introduce the new approach, which we’ll get to in a moment. - These changes are big. They mandate that teams will play at an international venue no more than once per season, and that they will only lose one home game every eight seasons. The Saints are getting that out of the way early by playing one of their three AFC opponents in London in 2022. - That brings us to the next point. All of these games will be AFC versus NFC matchups, which means the Saints will not be facing an NFC South rival abroad as has been mistakenly reported elsewhere. And because we can refer to the NFL’s scheduling formula to determine which teams the Saints will face in future years (more specifically, which AFC teams they’ll play on the road) we can put together a list of opponents for each of the next few seasons. - As for where these international matchups will be played: two or three games will be played in London (with the Jacksonville Jaguars volunteering to play a home game at Wembley Stadium in 2022, and others kicking off from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium), another tilt will be held in Germany (rotating between FC Bayern Munich Stadium and Frankfurt Stadium), and other options are on the table in Mexico and Canada. There are lucrative markets out there beyond America’s borders, and the NFL is determined to tap into them. - On a related note, the NFL awarded international marketing rights to various teams in select nations, which could factor into which teams are playing there most often. We’ll reference that as well in each segment, and you can read more on that process here. But let’s circle back to the Saints. Here are the year-by-year eligible opponents they could see on an international stage over the next four seasons:

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