The NFL took care in scheduling most of its international games, making sure to avoid divisional matchups. In the first six games it announced, only one was even a conference game. The international schedule was heavy on NFC vs. AFC games.
There’s good reason. Any international game is taking a home game away from one of the teams. The advantage gained by the designated road team is lessened a bit if it’s not a conference game.
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Then there’s the second game of the NFL season.
The Los Angeles Chargers signed up for a game in Brazil. The NFL picked the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chargers’ biggest obstacle in the AFC West, to be their opponent for that Week 1 game on Sept 5. The Chiefs’ Travis Kelce made the announcement on his “New Heights” podcast before Wednesday night’s official league announcement.
Let’s remember this if the AFC West race is close at the end of the season.
Chiefs-Chargers will be in Brazil
The NFL allows teams that are the designated host for an international game to protect two home games, and the Chargers didn’t designate the Chiefs as one of the two home games to protect, according to Sports Business Journal. They chose to protect teams that don’t come to Los Angeles often, such as the Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles or Washington Commanders, believing those games would be “even more lucrative,” according to SBJ.
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So if the Chargers lose abroad to the Chiefs and that matters in the final standings, the team deserves blame for prioritizing money over getting a home game against a team that has won the AFC West nine straight seasons.
If the Chargers protected two games, the NFL had seven other Chargers home opponents to choose from. The league didn’t have to pick the Chiefs, but it did. That came despite avoiding a divisional game in every other international matchup this season and a long history of doing so. Since the international games started in 2007, only six of them have been divisional games.
The Chiefs have gotten an overblown reputation as being favored by the NFL. But the Chiefs were handed an important edge by getting to play the Chargers in a neutral site game. Nobody else in the NFL this season will have that advantage.
Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (98) sacks Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) in a matchup last season. (Tammy Ljungblad/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(Kansas City Star via Getty Images)
Chiefs don’t have to play at Los Angeles
The Chargers should feel they can compete with the Chiefs for an AFC West championship. They are coming off a playoff season and seem to be on the rise.
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And as the NFL announces its schedule, 127 of the 128 divisional games will be in home stadiums and one will be in a neutral site. The Chargers have to play at the Chiefs this season, but the Chiefs don’t have to play the Chargers in Los Angeles. That’s a big edge for the Chiefs against a team that could be its biggest threat in the division.
The NFL has consistently put business interests ahead of fairness in the schedule, and Chiefs vs. Chargers will do great ratings for the standalone game on the Friday of Week 1. The league wasn’t worried about giving the Chiefs an advantage. It was likely thinking about maximizing the audience for YouTube, which will stream the game. The NFL will accomplish that. And again, the Chargers could have avoided the Chiefs as a neutral-site opponent by protecting that game and chose not to.
That decision could affect the shape of the postseason. There’s no guarantee the Chargers would have won a home game against the Chiefs, and the Chargers can make it a moot point by winning the neutral-site matchup. The Chargers could lose in Week 1 and go on to win the division. It might not matter at all. But there’s one divisional matchup on the entire schedule that eliminates a traditional road game for a team, and it happens to be the Chiefs against their perceived biggest competition in the AFC West.
The idea that the NFL favors the Chiefs through officiating was one of the most exhausting talking points of last season. In the case of the 2025 NFL schedule however, the Chiefs were given an undeniable edge.