Eagles might be playing in Mexico in 2022

The Philadelphia Eagles might be headed down to Mexico this year.

The NFL officially announced five international games for the 2022 season on Monday. The “home” teams for those matchups:

• Arizona Cardinals in Mexico City, Mexico
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Munich, Germany
• Green Bay Packers in London, United Kingdom
• New Orleans Saints in London, United Kingdom
• Jacksonville Jaguars in London, United Kingdom

Though the road opponents have not yet been revealed, we do know there’s a chance the Eagles will be playing in one of these matchups. Philly is scheduled to play a road game against the Cardinals this year, so it’s possible that game could be taking place at Estadio Azteca.

The Eagles were previously a candidate to play the Cardinals in Mexico back in 2020. Of course, COVID-19 put a halt to that possibility. Here’s what we wrote at the time:

The Eagles playing in Mexico would be fun for both the fans who already live there and the travelers who would journey down south of the U.S. border. Not to mention the Eagles would benefit from having one of their road games turned into a neutral site.

You might not be aware that the Eagles have a history of playing in Mexico. They were originally scheduled to play the first ever NFL game there in 1968 before it was cancelled. 10 years later, the Eagles squared off against the New Orleans Saints in a preseason game hosted at a stadium that was then known as Estadio de la Ciudad de los Deportes. The conditions of that game were said to be ... less than ideal.

After some long stretches of not playing in Mexico, the NFL returned in 2016. The league has since scheduled a regular season matchup in every year since, though 2018’s battle between the Los Angeles Rams and Kansas City Chiefs was moved back to LA after concerns about the playing surface at Estadio Azteca. The field was good enough for the Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers to play a game there in 2019, however.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has previously been a proponent of international NFL contests (although not at the expense of losing a game hosted at Lincoln Financial Field), so it wouldn’t be shocking if his team ends up playing the Cardinals in Mexico. The Eagles last played abroad when they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London during the 2018 campaign.

As one of the Cardinals’ nine home opponents in 2022, there’s an 11.11% chance of the Eagles playing in Mexico.

But if we’re to assume the NFL won’t double book the Bucs and Saints — who are also Cardinals home opponents — with international games, the chances increase to 14.29%.

And so any updates on this Mexico game will be worth monitoring moving forward. The NFL will reveal their entire 2022 schedule at some point in April or May.