While NFL teams don’t get to outright choose which international game they want to play it, it’s clear the Detroit Lions made a push in 2026 to get the game in Munich. They already had international marketing rights in Germany, Amon-Ra St. Brown is an instant draw to the local crowd given his German roots, and the Lions were overdue for an international trip given their last overseas game was in 2015.
So, as the NFL said on a conference call last Friday, the Lions (via president Rod Wood) and the league
essentially came to an agreement.
“We knew that Germany game was going to be a mere two weeks before Thanksgiving, and it was important enough to Rod, to the organization, to our international folks, certainly to your wide receiver [St. Brown] that it made a lot of sense for the Lions to play in that Germany game,” NFL vice president of broadcasting planning Mike North said.
But that choice came with a price for the Lions. With the game so close to their annual Thanksgiving Day game, it meant the league was almost certainly not going to give them a bye week following their international trip, setting up a tough 12-day stretch that includes three games and an intercontinental flight. This was a risk the Lions were apparently well aware of and okay with. Wood only asked that after their Thanksgiving game, that the Lions would not have to play another Thursday game. That way, they’d at least have a mini-bye. That request was granted by the league.
The question becomes whether that trade-off was worth it. Should the Lions have pushed for a different international game and potentially been given a bye week? Or did Rod Wood make the best out of a tough situation? One thing to consider: only three of 16 teams playing an international game this year will get a bye week immediately the game.
We debate that all on this week’s PODcast, where we break down all of the Lions’ 2026 schedule, make some record predictions, and even talk about Detroit’s schedule release video.
Catch the episode in the Spotify embed below, or on your favorite podcasting platform by searching “Pride of Detroit.” Don’t forget to give us a review on Apple Podcasts, as we try to reach 1,000 reviews by the start of the season.
You can also catch the video portion of our podcast on our YouTube and Twitch pages.
