The big international news from the NFL is the foray it is making into Germany, with one game in that country in each of the next four seasons. (Which, by the way, dovetails nicely with the fact the league gave four teams -- the Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- official branding rights access to the German market.)
But commissioner Roger Goodell also noted the NFL will return to Mexico after two years away as well, and that definitely puts the Cardinals in play.
The Cardinals "owed" the NFL one of their home games for an international tilt after being awarded the Super Bowl -- which comes to State Farm Stadium following the 2022 season. That was supposed to be in 2020, when the team was going to play in Mexico City. But the pandemic hit, and all international games were wiped out.
Ongoing pandemic issues heading into 2021 also kept the NFL out of Mexico this past season.
But now the NFL will go back to Estadio Azteca. And it would make sense the Cardinals -- who like those other teams given Germany rights were given branding rights in Mexico -- finally would play there. The Cardinals are scheduled to have an extra home game in 2022 thanks to the 17th game, so they would still have eight home games if it happened.
The Cardinals, of course, were the first team to trade a home regular season game to play in Mexico City, having beaten the 49ers there in 2005. ESPN Deportes reported earlier this month that the 2022 game would end up as a rematch of 2005.
