The Chicago Bears will cross the Atlantic and play a regular season game in London in 2019.
The NFL announced that it will continue its international series for the upcoming 2019 season with five games. One game will be in Mexico City and four will be in London.
One of those London games will feature the Oakland Raiders facing the Chicago Bears.
The Raiders will be the designated home team, so the Bears’ will be considered the road team and therefore will not have to give up one of their eight regular season home games. However, with the NFL’s 100th season next year, the Bears’ are expected to be featured prominently so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Bears give up a home game and perhaps play a game in Canton or some other neutral site-type game.
Traditionally, these games are played in October and, unless the team requests otherwise, the bye week will follow the international travel so you have a small glimpse into part of Chicago’s schedule this season.
Whether the Bears play at Wembley Stadium or Tottenham’s stadium is yet to be announced, as is the official date, but if Bears’ fans want to head to London to cheer on their beloved Bears, you might want to start saving some pennies now.
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With the Bears coming off a great season, that will mean plenty of disruptions to their schedule. They’ll be featured prominently on primetime television and are now slated for a London game as well. It’s something that Bears’ players will have to get used to. When the Bears are good, the NFL always wants to try to take advantage of their popularity.
Plenty of players have complained about the London game in the past, but the NFL has done a better job of streamlining travel and following the game with a bye so the players have been more agreeable to the game the last couple of seasons.
The Bears have participated in the international series before. They traveled to London and played in Wembley Stadium in 2011 when they defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18.