Dan Campbell will not be taking his Detroit Lions across international waters this fall.
ESPN radio in Chicago reported Wednesday that the Chicago Bears will play the Kansas City Chiefs in Germany in the 2023 season, sparing the Lions a trip overseas.
The Lions were one of a handful of candidates to play the Chiefs in one of the NFL’s five international games next season, with Lions president Rod Wood saying the team had “at least” a 50% chance of being selected for the game.
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The Lions were willing to go overseas, something they have not done since 2015, in order to delay having to play a “home” game internationally. NFL teams are required to give up a home game to play overseas once every 10 years, in a season they have nine home games.
The Lions will be a candidate to give up a home game in 2024.
“Selfishly, I’d rather not give up a home game while we’re kind of on this upward trajectory,” Wood told the Free Press in February. “Every 10 years you have to give up one of your nine, so I’m hoping that doesn’t happen in (2024). I would rather have it be ’26 or later. If playing internationally this year buys us a year off that, that’d be OK.”
The Lions have played two international games in the past decade, both in London. They lost to the Chiefs, 45-10, in 2015, and beat the Atlanta Falcons, 22-21, a year earlier. In 2020, the Lions were scheduled to play the Jaguars in London, but the NFL canceled its international series due to COVID-19.
Had the Lions-Chiefs game been scheduled for Germany this fall, the Lions would have gone more than two decades without playing at Arrowhead Stadium, one of the NFL’s most imposing homefield advantages.
The Lions last faced the Chiefs in Kansas City on Dec. 14, 2003. Under the NFL’s current scheduling formula, they are not slated to return to Kansas City until 2031.
Wood said in February that could factor into whether the Lions were selected to play in Germany.
“That’s the one thing I don’t know,” he said. “And I think playing them not in Kansas City wouldn’t be the end of the world.”
The NFL is expected to release its full schedule in May.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.