A two-week European vacation is usually the highlight of your year. Not often do we get to hop across the pond and galavant around fun new cities while raking in the PTO, so it's always something on the calendar worth looking forward to. That is, unless you're Matt LaFleur.
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Matt LaFleur hates going to Europe. Actually, Matt LaFleur hates working in Europe. I have no idea what he likes to do in his free time. But he definitely hates flying across the ocean to play football games, and I can't really blame him.
Fortunately, the NFL listened to him. LaFleur's *extremely* on the record about how he feels in regards to the NFL's growing interest in playing overseas, and apparently he made enough of an impression that the league ... bailed the Packers out and just made the Vikings play in Europe twice? On back-to-back weeks? For the first time in history?
Minnesota will become the first NFL team to play in back-to-back international games in different countries, facing the Steelers in the first-ever regular-season NFL game in Dublin, Ireland, on Sunday, Sept. 28. The Vikings then will travel to London, England, to play the… pic.twitter.com/449ZMm6xtL
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 13, 2025
Matt LaFleur just got spared another miserable Packers London game
"I'm not going to give you my honest answer," LaFleur said back in 2022. "I'd rather refrain. It feels like a Thursday night game for us as coaches just in terms of all the preparation you've got to do. But you just do it, so it is what it is."
If you remember, the Packers were pretty heavily rumored to be part of the NFL's 2025 game in Dublin. Instead, they just figured the Vikings were already over there, so what's another week thousands of miles away from their families? Even though Minnesota will have to play two less true road games than usual, having to stay over in Europe for the better part of three weeks isn't a whole lot better. But that's their problem – and very specifically not Matt LaFleur's problem.
Thank you, NFL. It's always kinda cool to see the Packers play abroad – the Brazil game last year was fun, until it wasn't – but it's even cooler to see a division rival get handed such an obvious disadvantage for no super apparent reason. We're one step closer to sending the Bears to the moon for the entire year.