The NFL schedule will come out this week, and before its release, there is one thing we know for sure: the Kansas City Chiefs will not be making the longest trip in league history to play a football game.
The NFL will play its first-ever game in Australia in Week 1 this season, and there was a good chance that the Kansas City Chiefs would be involved.
The Los Angeles Rams are the designated home team for the game down under, and with L.A. one of the teams Kansas City is slated to play on the road this year, the Chiefs could have had to make the 18,600-mile round trip to Melbourne and back.
It would have been the furthest any NFL team has ever had to travel for an international game, both by distance and time. The trip would take roughly 24 hours each way, with a 15-hour time difference between Kansas City and Melbourne, on Australia’s south-east coast.
But it’s not going to happen. The Rams will play the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne instead, and the Chiefs will stay stateside. That might seem like a good thing, but I think Kansas City might have been better off playing in Australia instead.
There are two reasons for this: marketing and logistics.
The Chiefs missed a rare global opportunity
First, the marketing. The NFL has never been more popular globally than it is right now, and the Kansas City Chiefs are one of, if not the biggest, names in the sport right now. That’s mainly because of their success on the field winning Super Bowls, but Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s relationship has arguably been an even bigger factor in making the Chiefs a household name around the world.
It would make sense that the NFL would want to lean into that popularity by scheduling the Chiefs for big games in new markets, but it is also something Kansas City should lean into as well.
The Chiefs are at the peak of their popularity and exposure, and they should take every opportunity to capitalize on that. The Dallas Cowboys might be “America’s Team,” but the Chiefs have an opportunity to become the world’s team with this kind of exposure. It’s an opportunity that won’t last forever and might not ever come again.
People who are new to a sport generally become fans of the team they saw play in person or the team they watched the most. If the Chiefs play games internationally and play in prime-time slots, that means more people are likely to become Kansas City fans, and that is a great thing for a team that ranks in the bottom 10 in the league in market size.
Why Week 1 is the best time for an international game
Then, there’s the logistics. Every NFL team has played overseas, and international games, love them or hate them, are not going away. So, if you’re going to have to play them at some point, I think Week 1 is the best time to do it.
If it’s a choice between a big trip to start the season or a trip to Europe for a midseason game, I’d choose the first option.
An overseas game in Week 1 gives the team, players, coaching staff, and front office the most time possible to prepare. The long-distance international matchups are announced months ahead of the schedule’s release – we already know the Rams and 49ers will play in Australia, and the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys will play in Brazil – allowing teams to plan accordingly.
The start of the season is a time when teams are also most in control of their own schedules. Practice, rest, and preseason playing time can all be adjusted with an overseas trip in mind, something that might be harder to do midseason if you’re playing competitive games in the lead-up.
A midseason international game could come at any point and can be another burden on a busy schedule. The Chiefs have featured heavily in holiday games recently, and they played three games in 11 days in December 2024. Adding a midseason trip to Europe into the mix could make that workload even tougher.
Sometimes it’s better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. By playing overseas in Week 1, teams like the Chiefs know what they’re getting into sooner and can plan for it better. It gives them more of an advantage compared to potentially playing an international game in Week 9 and having a busy schedule around it.
The Chiefs are going to keep on playing overseas, and they should be keen to do so. If they can volunteer to make that trip in Week 1, I think they should jump at the opportunity every time.
Add us as a preferred source on Google