NFL announces that no games will be played overseas in 2020

For the first time since 2006, every game of a National Football League season will be played on American soil.

On Monday, the NFL announced that the five games in the International Series that had been slated for the 2020 season. . .four in the United Kingdom and one in Mexico City. . .would instead be played in the United States due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The Minnesota Vikings were not slated to play in any of the International Series games for this year, so the changes will not affect them directly. The Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins were scheduled to host games in London, while the Jacksonville Jaguars were going to play back-to-back games in London for the first time since the International Series began back in 2007. The Arizona Cardinals were also scheduled to host a game in Mexico City.

The Vikings have participated in the International Series twice since its inception, emerging victorious both times. They served as the home team in 2013 and defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers by a final score of 34-27 at Wembley Stadium. They returned to the United Kingdom in 2017 as the visiting team, defeating the Cleveland Browns 33-16 in a game at Twickenham Stadium.

As much fun as it is getting an extra three hours of football as a part of one’s NFL Sunday, nobody will be getting that experience this season, as all of the NFL’s scheduled overseas games for 2020 have been scrapped by the league. Hopefully the situation will allow the NFL to go back to playing games overseas for the 2020 2021 (because I can’t type) season.