NFL announces 3 London games for 2014

The NFL has announced that three regular season games will be played at Wembley Stadium in London next season. The Atlanta Falcons, Oakland Raiders and Jacksonville Jaguars will give up home games to host respective matchups abroad.

by James Brady

Oct 8, 2013, 7:13 PM UTC

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The NFL has announced that three games will be played in the United Kingdom during the 2014-15 season, as part of its International Series. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and Atlanta Falcons will all give up one home game to "host" one of their opponents at Wembley Stadium in London.

It's the first time that three regular season games will be played in the UK. This season, two games are being held at Wembley. The Minnesota Vikings battled the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 29, and the San Francisco 49ers are set to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars there on Oct. 27.

Minnesota took down Pittsburgh, 34-27, in a matchup that fans and the media criticized due to the fact that both teams were winless at the time. But the stadium was packed and the fans seemed to enjoy it, as has been the case for every London game in recent years.

Jacksonville has committed to play at least one home game in London through the 2016 season. Both Oakland and Atlanta will be playing their first overseas regular season game in franchise history. The Raiders played a preseason game in London in 1990 and haven’t been back since.

As to who their opponents will be, that likely won’t come out for some time. The full schedule isn’t set and won’t be until the end of the current regular season, but there’s always a possibility that the news will be announced early, especially if one of their confirmed opponents is a division rival.

It’s unclear how far the NFL wants to take this program. Does it want 16 regular season games in London each year, or is the league working closer to establishing an NFL team there? Alternatively, could it simply be drumming up interest to bring back NFL Europe? It will be interesting to see where this stands in the next few years.