Arizona Cardinals will play Los Angeles Rams in London in 2017
Dec 13, 2016, 6:41 AM | Updated: 12:31 pm
The Arizona Cardinals will travel across the Atlantic Ocean and play the Los Angeles Rams next season in London, England. The NFL announced the teams will play at Twickenham Stadium in either Week 7 or 8 — Oct. 22 or 29.
The Cardinals will not give up a home game and will be the visiting team.
“In 2014, I attended the Raiders-Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium and experienced first-hand the incredible enthusiasm U.K. fans have for the NFL,” Cardinals president Michael Bidwill said in a statement. “I also encountered a huge number of Cardinals fans asking when our team would be playing there. I know this is great news for them as well as the U.S. members of the Red Sea who couldn’t have a cooler destination to see a road game. We’re looking forward to seeing them all there next fall.”
Next year will be the franchise’s first regular season visit to England, but they have played there before. In 1983 the Cardinals played a preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings at Wembley Stadium. That was the NFL’s first game in England.
In other preseason action, the Cardinals played the San Diego Chargers in 1976 at Tokyo’s Korakuen Stadium. That was the NFL’s first game outside of North America.
In 2005, the Cardinals played the 49ers at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. The attendance was an NFL-record 103,467 in the league’s first regular season game outside of the United States.
After playing three games to sellout crowds in London each season since 2014, the NFL is expanding to four games in 2017. The other three games are matchups between the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars, New Orleans Saints against the Miami Dolphins and the Vikings taking on the Cleveland Browns.
The league will have played 21 games in the UK since the first regular-season game in London in 2007. The Rams played the New York Giants in Twickenham Stadium earlier this season.
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