Amon-Ra St. Brown, Penei Sewell discuss 2025 Lions season, what’s next
Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown and OT Penei Sewell talk about the disappointment of the 2025 season and what lies ahead in 2026 at Super Bowl 60.
The Detroit Lions are headed to Deutschland.
The NFL announced the Lions will play a home game in Germany this fall as part of the league’s nine-game international series. The Lions will host a to-be-determined opponent in Munich, Germany, at FC Bayern Munich Stadium. The game date, kickoff time and opponent will be announced during the NFL’s greater schedule release.
All five international games previously played in Germany have been in early November.
The Lions have long expected to have one of their nine home games shipped overseas this fall and were officially notified in December they were picked to play an international game.
The Lions have not played overseas since making back-to-back trips to London in 2014-15, when they beat the Atlanta Falcons, 22-21, and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, 45-10.
Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said in December he hoped to play a game in Germany in 2026. St. Brown’s mother, Miriam, was born in Germany and the Lions receiver speaks fluent German and said he hopes to play flag football for the country in the 2028 Olympics.
“To play in Germany, would be, I think my mom would be more excited than me,” St. Brown said in December. “I asked her jokingly, I was like, ‘How many tickets do you think you’d need?’ She’s like, ‘Probably like 50, 60.’ I’m like, ‘Damn, that’s crazy.'”
The NFL will host nine international games this fall and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated at the Super Bowl this year he hopes to expand the league’s international slate to 16 games a season.
Ideally, league officials have said, that means every team playing one game overseas per year.
Along with Germany, the NFL has games scheduled this fall for Australia, Brazil, England, France, Mexico and Spain. The Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play in Australia, the Dallas Cowboys are the home team for the game in Brazil, and the league has three games planned for London.
Currently, teams are required to give up a home game (in a season in which they have nine home dates) to play internationally at least once every eight years. Teams can protect three games from being moved overseas, and the league considers a three-week window around the games to make travel less demanding.
The Lions have broadened their international reach in recent years, acquiring marketing rights in Germany, Brazil, Canada, Austria and Switzerland as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program.
St. Brown also hosts a football camp every spring in Germany, and the Lions unveiled a German mascot this year they named “Leo Löwe.”
“Germany, with the number of games that are being played there, and in particular with St. Brown’s popularity, was kind of a natural thing to draft off of his popularity and vice versa, cause I know he wants to do some things over there,” Lions president Rod Wood said of the team’s decision to bid on marketing rights in Germany in 2024.
The Lions’ home schedule this year includes games against fellow NFC North opponents the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings, plus games against the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, New York Jets, New York Giants, Tennessee Titans and the AFC champion New England Patriots.
Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
