The Olympiastadion in Berlin saw the Indianapolis Colts play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, Nov. 9
09 November 2025, Berlin: American football: NFL professional league, Indianapolis Colts - Atlanta Falcons, main round, main round games, matchday 10, Olympiastadion Berlin. The NFL logo, the US colors and the German colors during a pre-game choreography. Photo: Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
The NFL plays in the Olympiastadion Berlin.
The NFL hosted a regular-season game in Berlin for the first time on Sunday, Nov. 9
Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor rushed for a franchise record of 244 yards during the game, which saw the Colts beat the Atlanta Falcons 31-25 in overtime
The game was played in the Olympiastadion, where U.S. sprinter Jesse Owens won 4 track and field gold medals in front of Adolph Hitler during the 1936 Olympics
Study the NFL 2025 schedule and it will tell you that the Indianapolis Colts played the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday, Nov. 9. In reality, the game was a festival of American Football itself.
Every major NFL franchise was represented among the jerseys, caps and beanies of the 72,203-person-strong crowd, as the Colts ran out as overtime winners 31-25.
This was in large part thanks to running back Jonathan Taylor, who rushed for 244 yards on 32 carries and scored three touchdowns, the second of which broke the franchise record at 83 yards.
09 November 2025, Berlin: American football: NFL professional league, Indianapolis Colts - Atlanta Falcons, main round, main round games, matchday 10, Olympiastadion Berlin. Fireworks after the anthems.
09 November 2025, Berlin: American football: NFL professional league, Indianapolis Colts - Atlanta Falcons, main round, main round games, matchday 10, Olympiastadion Berlin. Fireworks after the anthems.
It was a fitting tribute to the most iconic American athlete of all time, Jesse Owens, who famously won 4 track and field gold medals (100-meters, 200-meters, 4x100-meter relay and long jump) under the glare of Nazi dictator Adolph Hitler at the same stadium during the 1936 Olympics.
The game itself was also something of a history maker. Along with being the first NFL game played in Berlin since the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs played an exhibition match in 1990, it also took place on the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Fittingly, the pre-game entertainment included a huge rendition of "Wings of Change" by The Scorpions, which became the anthem for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe as people power surged across the region in 1989. The flag-waving celebration covered the stadium with the colours of the U.S. and Germany, as locals and jet-lagged football fans from across the world got the party started.
It was some party too. The game was a unique mix of soccer crowd and NFL razzmatazz, with the locals breaking into John Denver’s "Country Road", and Neil Diamond’s "Sweet Caroline", then wildly dancing to techno hit "Maria" by German dance act Scooter and throwing their arms high in the air during massive crowd waves that repeatedly circled both tiers of the 88-year-old stadium.
09 November 2025, Berlin: American Football: Professional League NFL, Indianapolis Colts - Atlanta Falcons, Main Round, Main Round Games, Matchday 10, Olympic Stadium. Jonathan Taylor
09 November 2025, Berlin: American Football: Professional League NFL, Indianapolis Colts - Atlanta Falcons, Main Round, Main Round Games, Matchday 10, Olympic Stadium. Jonathan Taylor
Each major play was met with spontaneous soccer-style chants, with the crowd further encouraged by scoreboard animations reading "Macht Larm" (make noise) and "Lauter” (louder).
The NFL also went all out to create a party atmosphere across the German capital — not exactly a hard task in a city with nightclubs that never close and where beer is consumed as readily as water.
This included dedicated Colts and Falcons fan bars in multiple locations and pop-up events near historic sites like the Brandenburg Gate. In a city filled with street art and history, you literally couldn't move without seeing an NFL logo on a streetlight or wall, while hotel chain Marriott Bonvoy enabled fans to create their own unique pieces of NFL memorabilia by installing special photo booths across the city that transposed their photographs onto unique hotel keycards.
Jesse Owens at the start of the 200 metres at the Berlin Olympic Games, 1936. Owens setting off on the way to one of his four gold medals at the 1936 games. A print from Olympia 1936, Die Olympischen Spiele 1936, Volume II, Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, Hamburg, 1936.
Jesse Owens at the start of the 200 metres at the Berlin Olympic Games, 1936. Owens setting off on the way to one of his four gold medals at the 1936 games. A print from Olympia 1936, Die Olympischen Spiele 1936, Volume II, Cigaretten-Bilderdienst, Hamburg, 1936.
The hotel chain also went one step further by working with German pop-artist Moritz Adam Schmitt to create NFL-themed keycards as part of a Super Bowl competition that gives fans the chance to wake up inside a specially-created “Sleepover Suite” inside Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday.
Thanks to Sunday’s epic game, this may now include NFL fans who experienced the sight of a regular-season game being played inside the most historic stadium on earth, and got to witness quarterback Daniel Jones and the entire Indianapolis Colts’ team dance to Scooter’s German techno inside the Falcons’ end zone at the close of play.
It may not have been a traditional NFL event, but it was a joyous, fun-filled and action-packed game, where sports fans from across the world happily came together to sing songs, eat currywurst and take in the spectacle of cheerleaders, quarterbacks and halftime performer Kid Laroi doing what they do best under cold, dark, Berlin skies.
Yes, it only represents a small footnote in the huge history of the Olympiastadion, but it will live long in the memory of anyone fortunate enough to have been there to see it happen. Macht Larm!