Any Chicago Bears fans planning on attending an international game in the 2023 NFL season might have to cancel their plans.
The Kansas City Chiefs are slated to play a game in Frankfurt, Germany, this season. The thought was that the Chiefs would square off against the Bears, at least that's what one German newspaper reported.
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NBC Sports' Peter King takes a deeper look into this in his latest article:
From King: "Kansas City is playing a November game in Frankfurt this year; that's a fact. The German newspaper Bild reported KC would play Chicago in the Germany game, and that KC would play again in Germany in 2024 when Carolina is due to host a game there. Bild reported Carolina's 2024 foe would be Kansas City. I've been told there's some doubt on both of those reports."
"First: When a team gives up one of its home games to play overseas, it has the option of requesting to the league one home game on its schedule the team does not want moved. I'm told Kansas City requested that the Chicago game not be played overseas. As for 2024, it's hard to imagine Carolina would not try to keep Patrick Mahomes' only currently scheduled game in Charlotte for the next eight years at Bank of America Stadium. You might ask, Wouldn't Kansas City want to protect red-hot home games against Buffalo, Cincinnati and Philadelphia from moving to Germany? The league would almost certainly not schedule those games for overseas, because Germany games are played in the 9:30 a.m. ET window, which is not nearly as conducive to big ratings as are Sunday late-afternoon or primetime games."
The Bears overwhelmingly large international fanbase could be what made the Chiefs request this game be played in Kansas City. Despite the Chiefs' growing popularity, the Bears have been a dominant brand, though team success has fallen off of late, for the better part of a century.
Hopefully the two sides can work it out. After all, it would save Chicago from playing a true road game in one of the toughest environments across the NFL.