Justin Herbert, Chargers will play their 2025 season opener in Brazil

By Canadian Press on February 19, 2025.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Chargers will play their 2025 season opener in Brazil, making the franchise the first to play on five continents, the NFL announced Wednesday.

The Chargers’ opponent is expected to be announced in May, when the NFL’s regular-season schedule is released.

The Chargers will be the home team for the Friday, Sept. 5 game at Neo Quimica Arena in São Paulo. The venue hosted a Week 1 matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers last season in the first NFL game in South America.

Led by quarterback Justin Herbert, the Chargers finished 11-6 in 2024 in their first season under coach Jim Harbaugh before losing 32-12 to Houston in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

“It’s an honor to once again represent the NFL on an international stage,” said A.G. Spanos, the Chargers’ president of business operations. “It’s also a tremendous opportunity to help grow the game and bring the Chargers brand to millions of sports fans across Brazil and Latin America.”

Since 1976, the Chargers have played regular-season or preseason games in Mexico City, London, Tokyo, Berlin and Sydney.

The Chargers are scheduled to host AFC West rivals Denver, Kansas City and Las Vegas along with Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh and Minnesota.

Since the Super Bowl champions usually get to open the following season at home, the league is unlikely to schedule the Eagles for back-to-back trips to South America, while the Colts and Steelers are already scheduled to be the designated hosts of their own international games.

The NFL has announced that seven regular-season games will be played internationally during the 2025 season.

Three will be played in London. The Cleveland Browns and New York Jets are the designated home teams for the games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium while the Jacksonville Jaguars will make their yearly appearance at Wembley Stadium.

The Pittsburgh Steelers will host the league’s first regular-season game in Dublin, Ireland, and the Miami Dolphins are the home team for the game in Madrid, Spain. Berlin will host the Germany game for the first time with the Indianapolis Colts as the home team.

The NFL can schedule up to eight international matchups, beginning with this upcoming season.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The Associated Press

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