The full NFL schedule will be released Wednesday night, but if the past is any indication, the league will reveal some matchups earlier in the week.
We already know which teams have given up a home game to play an international contest. That includes the Los Angeles Chargers, who will play the first Friday of the season in São Paulo, Brazil.
That’s scheduled for one day after the NFL Kickoff Game, and the Athletic reported in early April the Chargers wanted to face the Chiefs in that South American city.
The Chargers’ wish apparently has been granted, according to Front Office Sports.
This is from Front Office Sports’ Eric Fisher: “The league is closing in on an agreement to have the Google-owned YouTube, distributors of the residential version of NFL Sunday Ticket, carry the Sept. 5 game in Brazil involving the Chargers as the home team. The deal, according to sources, will see the opening-week game from São Paulo include the Chiefs, the NFL’s top viewership draw, as the visiting team.”
The game would be available on YouTube for free, according to Fisher. Having the Chiefs as a calling card fits with what the NFL has done in the past when expanding its media rights.
Mike North, the NFL’s VP of broadcast planning and scheduling, admitted on the It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo podcast, that the league leans heavily on the Chiefs.
“You think back a couple of years ago, we played our first wild card game on a streaming service on Peacock,” North said. “And everybody’s like, ‘Hey, this cannot fail.’ Well, you want to make wild card on Peacock a thing, you put a Kansas City Chiefs game there. A couple of years ago, it was Black Friday. You want to make Black Friday a thing, you put a Kansas City Chiefs game there.
“Last year we had Netflix. First time ever broadcasting an NFL game on Christmas. You want to make Wednesday Netflix Christmas NFL a thing, you put a Kansas City Chiefs game there. We do need to build other muscles. We do need to be able to go to a deeper well than just Kansas City and Dallas every year.”
But the league apparently is going to the well again with the Chiefs to give YouTube, which has carried NFL Sunday Ticket since 2023, a boost.
And that means the Chiefs are likely to open the season with a road game ... in South America.
This story was originally published May 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM.