Report: Packers in discussions to play exhibition game in Canada
-- The Green Bay Packers could have a busy summer ahead of them.
Team President and CEO Mark Murphy confirmed on Tuesday at the annual league meetings in Arizona that the Packers are in discussions to possibly play an exhibition game in Canada against the Oakland Raiders in 2019. The two possible destinations are Saskatchewan and Winnipeg.
The Raiders are no strangers to playing outside of the United States. They've played a regular-season in either London or Mexico City in each of the last three seasons. The Packers, meanwhile, weren't willing to sacrifice a home game during the season to travel overseas to Wembley Stadium.
They evidently wouldn't want to sacrifice a preseason game either, considering Murphy noted that this would be the Raiders' home game.
While this is strictly intended for exhibition play in August, the Packers will be the only team in the NFL to have not participated in the league's International Series by 2019.
The Packers previously played in the American Bowl, which was a series of preseason games between 1986 and 2005 played outside of the United States. They traveled to Toronto, Canada in 1997 for a meeting with the Buffalo Bills and Tokyo, Japan in 1998 for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won both games.
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Zachary Jacobson is a staff writer/reporter for Cheesehead TV. He's the voice of The Leap on iTunes and can be heard on The Scoop KLGR 1490 AM every Saturday morning. He's also a contributor on the Pack-A-Day Podcast. He can be found on Twitter via @ZachAJacobson or contacted through email at [email protected].
Comments (11)
PatrickGB
March 26, 2019 at 09:53 pm
I am all for it. I will be in Canada during that time frame. It’s near impossible to get Packers on TV or radio when in Canada due to regulatory restrictions.
stockholder
March 26, 2019 at 10:17 pm
I use to watch Canadian football. OH Canada!
Spock
March 27, 2019 at 07:31 am
Interesting. Should be fun for people wanting to visit Canada and see the Packers for the price of one trip. Just saw that the owners did a surprising flip on rules "NFL will allow pass interference, including non-calls, to be reviewed on replay in major rule shift". Everyone seemed to think this wasn't going to happen, but apparently after a lot of discussion this will be tried this year. Much as I hate the whole game stoppage for replay stuff, this actually should make up for some possible game changing issues that has plagued the league in recent years.
sonomaca
March 27, 2019 at 07:39 am
Regarding replay, the rule change is fine as long as review is done quickly. The current system is horrendous. NFL should look to artificial intelligence as a possible solution.
NFL should play exhibitions in Africa. That’s where the population growth will be. That’s where future players might be found. The NFL might really connect there, since a vast majority of players are African-American.
PackExpat
March 27, 2019 at 08:15 am
Astute observation. I think you have really nailed why the NFL has failed in the US. The majority white population just can't connect...
sonomaca
March 27, 2019 at 01:58 pm
Where did I say anything about the white population? I’ll spell it out so you’ll be able to understand. If the NHL took hockey to Africa, I think they’d have trouble making a connection. Ditto for any predominantly “white” sport. Get it?
PackExpat
March 28, 2019 at 08:31 am
I think your logic is inherently flawed if your premise is humans identify best with sports played by the same race. NHL and NASCAR should be more popular than the NFL or NBA in the USA, but they aren't. It turns out the sport is more important than the background of those watching/playing.
egbertsouse
March 27, 2019 at 08:04 am
Canada! What a bunch of hosers, eh?
4thand1
March 27, 2019 at 11:35 am
coo coo..........c c c coo coo coooooo.
Doug_In_Sandpoint
March 27, 2019 at 08:31 am
We should play there later in the season when our IR guys can get free healthcare. With our injury history the club could save a bundle.
RCPackerFan
March 27, 2019 at 09:06 am
Congrats Jordy! Great Career!