The Minnesota Vikings found out their first two games of the 2025 season on Tuesday morning.
The Vikings will become the first team in NFL history to play in back-to-back games overseas in different countries with week four coming in Dublin, Ireland against the Pittsburgh Steelers and week five coming against the Cleveland Browns in London, England.
It feels like a punishment, but it turns two of the Vikings' nine road games to neutral site games, which is a massive advantage. However, it's not quite that simple at the same time.
NFL could be using Vikings as guinea pigs
One of the more intriguing elements about the schedule release is all the storylines that you get from it. The majority of the storylines come from when games will occur on the schedule rather than the games themselves, as the NFL has a tendency to make things easier or harder for other teams.
For the Vikings, playing back-to-back games not just in Europe, but in different countries, is one that hasn't been done before. The Jacksonville Jaguars have played back-to-back games in London, but they were in the same city. So, why would the NFL end up doing this?
They could be trying to test out how things will work logistically if they were to put a team permanently in another country.
It's a fascinating conspiracy theory and one that certainly makes a lot of sense. Of course, the NFL isn't going to say that's what they are doing, and an organization like the Vikings have done a great job of doing the right thing logistically over the course of the last few years. It's why the Vikings have been voted either the best or second best organization in the NFLPA survey the last three years.
How things will manifest over the next few years will be really interesting to watch, including how the Vikings handle themselves this year.
