From the beginning, it was an unprecedented venture, and one the league was eyeing very closely. Afterall, the Vikings rank near the top of the league in organizational happiness, since Kevin O’Connell arrived as head coach. If any team could make the multi-week trip a success for both themselves and the league, it was Minnesota.

When news broke initially that the MN Vikings would be playing back-to-back games in Europe, O’Connell and others inside TCO Performance Center played it off as a competitive advantage, and actively pushed that narrative both publicly and through NFL insiders.

Instead of playing away games in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, the Vikings would play in what they expected to be mostly neutral sites. As far as how to handle an extended international football vacation, everyone pointed to Paul Martin and the team’s operations staff as the ideal men and women for the job.

Minnesota Vikings bit off more of Europe they could chew

In theory, all that sounded great and it even made sense. But in practice, the Minnesota Vikings found out pretty quickly that this trip would be far from normal and increasingly taxing on everyone involved, the longer the team remained outside the USA.

From the sounds of it, this is NOT something the team would ever do again, nor is it an adventure that they’d recommend the NFL lay at the feet of any other organization. Let’s start with Jonathan Greenard, immediately after the Vikings’ victory last Sunday in London.

Reporter: “In the future if you’ve got to play [overseas] twice in a season, would you prefer it to be back to back [again]?”

Greenard: “Yeah, I would be the first to say that I would not like to do back to back. But that’s not in my control. Ultimately, someone had to do it. It was us. But at the end of the day, we made the best of it.”

But if you thought Greenard was the only homesick Viking in Europe last week, you would be very, very wrong. Jordan Addison bailed on the team facilities while the Vikings were in London, failing to return in time for a walkthrough.

Location of Vikings hotel in London was far from ideal

That resulted in the 3rd year wide receiver being benched for the first quarter of Sunday’s game against Cleveland. Obviously, missing a team walkthrough unannounced is unacceptable under just about any conditions, but given the Minnesota Vikings setup for game two of their European swing didn’t make coming and going very easy.

Instead of being located near Tottenham Hotspur Stadium or anywhere near the London area, the Vikings were posting up at Hanbury Manor on the rural English countryside, about 1.5 hours away from London, either by public transport (which included multiple connecting trains and buses) or automobile.

The trip got so long that Kevin O’Connell was counting down “the sleeps” until the team went home, first mentioning the countdown publicly on Friday at his press conference when he noted early that there were only two sleeps remaining until their flight back to the states.

After the victory vs Cleveland in London, he opened his postgame locker room speech with, “ZERO SLEEPS LEFT” and the entire locker room roared.

Nobody flinched.#Skol pic.twitter.com/0z8PFcBEVM

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) October 5, 2025

“Fellas, make no mistake about it. I know how long this trip has been. I know how long it’s been. Let me just give you some good news, by the way… ZERO SLEEPS!!”

In the end, one thing is clear. The Minnesota Vikings were regretting their two-week trip to Europe shortly after it started. You can blame it on homesickness, amenities or injuries… but at the end of the day, planning a work trip for 200 people is going to be taxing.

And while the game isn’t going to stop growing internationally anytime soon, I think it is pretty clear that, if NFL teams had it their way, playing games outside of the United States would cease immediately.

Receiver Justin Jefferson, the team’s emotional heartbeat, tried his best. He said Sunday that “it definitely was a great trip, even though it was very long and a little tiring.” Soft-spoken safety Theo Jackson bluntly said “it sucks” to go so long without seeing his family, and trying to navigate a six-hour time difference for video calls.

“They understand it,” Jackson said, “but it still doesn’t take away how much it sucks.”

ESPN

“It was tough,” tight end T.J. Hockenson said. “You’re not eating the way you normally eat. You’re not getting the recovery you normally get. You’re not seeing the people you normally see. You’re not getting the ‘juice’ you usually get. There’s so many things that go into it. But we talked about it all week. There’s so many excuses. You can point to one. You can point to two. You can point to 20. At the end of the day, it’s like, ‘Let’s grind. Let’s not seek comfort.'”

Brian Flores (via ESPN)

Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done, especially when nearly half of your team may be out with varying injuries or mysterious illnesses. The headliner on Minnesota’s injury report this week, though, is 2024 No. 10 overall draft pick, JJ McCarthy.

The former Michigan Wolverine was added after a shocking announcement by head coach Kevin O’Connell on Tuesday that the 22-year-old QB1 suffered an ankle sprain in the Vikings’ week two loss against the Atlanta Falcons.

McCarthy is expected to miss 2-4 weeks and he’s already been ruled out for Sunday afternoon’s matchup vs Cinci. But how long will Minnesota’s young franchise QB actually sit out for? That question is more difficult to answer.

Tuesday morning, reading between some lines, it’s starting to sound like JJ McCarthy could be ready for his return, either week 4 or week 5, BEFORE the Minnesota Vikings’ week 6 bye. According to one very plugged in (homegrown) NFL insider, however, his return timeline is being muddied by a looming two-week trip overseas.

JJ McCarthy’s return timeline being muddied by Minnesota Vikings trip overseas

Remember, this offseason the Vikings accepted and helped orchestrate a two-game trip to Europe in 2025. In week 4, Minnesota is scheduled to play against Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, in Dublin. Then, for week 5, they will hop over the UK border to face Kevin Stefanski and the Cleveland Browns, in London.

And Tuesday morning, just a week or so out from when the Vikings are scheduled to leave on their international business trip, Tom Pelissero (NFL Network) is reporting concern within the organization that the extended flight could add complications to JJ McCarthy’s recovery process and return timeline.

According to @TomPelissero, the Vikings’ trip overseas could play a huge factor into JJ McCarthy’s returns timeline…

“The schedule is a factor here with JJ McCarthy… What you don’t want to do with a high ankle sprain is get on an 8-hour flight that’s going to cause the thing… pic.twitter.com/XIm1t1YRnU

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) September 16, 2025

“The Vikings are expected to start Carson Wentz on Sunday against Jake Browning and the Bengals because of what we have reported as a high ankle sprain for quarterback JJ McCarthy that is expected to sideline him this week and quite possibly more.

Now the schedule is a factor here with JJ McCarthy…What you don’t want to do with high ankle sprain is get on like an 8 hour flight that’s going to cause the thing to swell up. So there might be something to be said for not having JJ make, at least, the initial trip to Dublin.

And also, given where that by falls, you could end up getting JJ back, having a month off, but only missing 3 games, potentially come back for a really difficult stretch in the schedule.”

Tom Pelissero – Good Morning Football (NFL Network)

Related: Minnesota Vikings Ravaged by Injuries Yet Again

Of course, high ankle sprains are tricky, so nothing is guaranteed. But Tom’s report seems to suggest that the biggest factor holding McCarthy back from a week 4 return under-center could be the Vikings’ concern over their flight to Dublin, itself.

How big of a risk would McCarthy flying to Dublin actually be?

McCarthy’s ability to play through his injury on Sunday lends even more evidence to the notion that McCarthy could be ready to return sooner than later… if the Minnesota Vikings decide to risk an 8 hour plane ride across the pond (Google has it measured at 7 hours, 45 minutes).

According to the Mayo Clinic, swelling in injuries while flying is common, and rarely dangerous. That’s especially true for a young, healthy kid like JJ McCarthy. But as Pelissero mentioned, it’s the distance of Minnesota’s flight to Ireland that could add additional risk.

Per Mayo Clinic, that risk comes in the form of “Deep Vein Thrombosis” (DVT). However, Mayo’s flight time threshold for additional DVT risk is set at 12 hours, not eight.

Leg and foot swelling during air travel is common. It’s usually harmless. The most likely reason for it is sitting for a long time without moving during a flight.

Sitting with the feet on the floor for a long time causes blood to pool in the leg veins. The position of the legs while seated also increases pressure in the leg veins. This plays a role in swelling by causing fluid to leave the blood and move into the surrounding soft tissues.

A dangerous blood clot called deep vein thrombosis (DVT) sometimes causes leg swelling. But the risk of getting DVT on an airplane is very low for healthy people, especially on flights that last under four hours. In general, the chance of getting DVT starts to rise on flights over 12 hours.

Mayo Clinic

There has been plenty of chatter surrounding the Vikings’ extremely rare international doubleheader, most of it positive. For starters, the Browns will arrive just days before their week five overseas date with the Vikings (in London).

While they are fighting jet lag and the many distractions that come with playing these novelty regular season games, the Minnesota Vikings should already be well adjusted, being they’ll arrive a full week earlier and having already played one game just one short plane ride away.

In theory, with this rare overseas doubleheader, Minnesota is also turning two of next season’s away games into neutral site matchups. Not only that, but they are undefeated in both regular (4-0) and exhibition (4-0) games outside of the USA borders, during the Vikings long-storied franchise history.

How many people were trying to get Dublin (Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers) tickets…?

Speaking of drawing well, tickets for Vikings vs Steelers in Ireland on September 28 went on sale Tuesday morning at TicketMaster.com. When fans in the USA logged on bright and early to try and snag a 2025 PIT vs MIN ticket, however, they were greeted to quite the unwelcome surprise.

According to the automated online queue, those fans were told that hundreds of thousands of people were ahead of them in line, to purchase what appeared to be the hottest ticket in the world, all of a sudden. At its peak, the queue reached an unimaginable 600,000+ supposed people.

Been waiting months for the tickets to drop for Steelers game in Dublin. Get in the queue as early as you can get in. Only to see a quarter of a million people ahead of you like wtf🤦🏻‍♂️😂Been in the queue 38 minutes & it’s only gone down 271 people.Find that a lil hard to believe🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/FbEwtZOQDF

— Cam⚫️🌕 (@KillaCam0531) June 17, 2025

Related: Anonymous NFL Coach Gushes Over Minnesota Vikings Rookie

Finally arrived in the queue for the NFL Dublin Game tickets 😂 pic.twitter.com/LRoQuIEGfz

— René Bugner (@RNBWCV) June 17, 2025

Don’t worry. If you forgot to set an alarm for this morning, tickets are still available and the queue looks nothing like it did earlier in the day. In fact, you can take your chance now and wait a mear minute or two, vs some this morning who waited multiple hours.

WTF is going on in the TicketMaster queue?

But that begs the question: If there were that many interested people, when those tickets went on sale, how did the game not sell out in minutes? In case you are curious, Croke Park in Dublin holds an impressive 82,000 people, more than U.S. Bank Stadium (70,000).

In case you struggle with math, the 750,000 people who have supposedly gone through the Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers TicketMaster queue could sell the place out over nine times. Yet somehow (as of 1:50 PM CDT on Tuesday), you can login and still purchase multiple tickets all over the stadium.

Maybe the huge 600K number waiting in the Vikings vs Steelers (Dublin) ticket queue was mostly bots, a tech mistake? Here's what it looks like at 12:40 PM CDT. Tickets still available… pic.twitter.com/THeeW01eQN

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) June 17, 2025

I have reached out to TicketMaster for more information on what happened with today’s queue, which exponentially outperformed other international NFL games that use the same system, including the Vikings’ very next game one week later in London vs the Browns.

It is worth noting, however, that tickets for that game in London remain much more widely available than week four in Dublin. If/when TicketMaster responds to our inquiry, this article will be updated.

After they played in London, England last season, another international contest right away doesn’t usually happen (unless you’re the Jacksonville Jaguars). Thus, when rumors that the MN Vikings could actually play, not just one, but back-to-back games across the pond turned reality… heads really turned.

There are opinions on both sides — regarding whether or not two international games are a good thing for the Vikings, who will play week four in Dublin and week five in London, before getting week 6 as their bye — but the more information we get on how this overseas doubleheader came into being, the more we realize that this was just as much Vikings-driven as it was league-driven.

How did the Minnesota Vikings end up with back-to-back international games?

This week, NFL schedule-maker Mike North went on the Ross Tucker podcast where he pulled back the curtain on how it all went down. It was Roger Goodell who first broached the idea to North. He did not think there was any chance the Vikings would be interested, but he asked anyway.

To his surprise, however, Vikings leadership went from what North described as “open-minded, to willing, to kind of eager” toward the opportunity. Thus, the Minnesota Vikings and the league worked out the details together and made it happen.

Per Mike North, NFL Schedule Creator, the Vikings went from "open minded, to willing, to kind of eager" to try something new with back to back international games in different cities.

With the Vikings are fully on board, it can't come soon enough.pic.twitter.com/cl7eUddTWf

— The Purple Persuasion (@TPPSkol) May 15, 2025

“When we got into international games, I basically reached out to all the teams, and said, ‘hey Vikings, you see the schedule. You know Pittsburgh is hosting a game in Dublin. You know you are a road opponent for the Steelers this year. There’s a chance you could be chosen to go to Ireland.

Subsequent phone call: ‘Hey Vikings, you know you’re playing the Browns this year. They’re hosting a game in London. You know you’re a possible opponent to play the Browns in London this year. And it was actually commissioner Goodell who said, ‘do you think they’d want to do both?’, and I said ‘absolutely not, no chance.

But I called them and I talked to them and they went from open-minded to willing to kind of eager. And so we kind of partnered up with them, figured out a way to innovate, try something new here, and they worked with our ops team…and they’re going to spend the week over there and it’ll be a good test for us.”

NFL Scheduler – Mike North on the Ross Tucker Podcast

So there you have it. The Minnesota Vikings drove the bus on their overseas doubleheader, after Goodell floated the idea to North, who then (to his surprise) took the idea and ran with it. But who in the Vikings organization is leading the international effort?

Why Kevin O’Connell invites these overseas games

According to the Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling and Andrew Krammer, on the latest episode of the Access Vikings podcast, it’s head coach Kevin O’Connell driving Minnesota’s overseas bus plane. And there are a couple of reasons — some football-related, and some not.

First, Krammer points to something O’Connell told international reporters, when speaking to them following the league’s announcement last week. KOC likes the idea of having McCarthy’s rookie weeks four and five to be played in the friendlier confines of Croke Park (IE) and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (UK), instead of Heinz Field (Pittsburgh) and Huntington Bank Field (Cleveland).

“O’Connell went as far as to say that Europe is a better backdrop for JJ McCarthy, than Pittsburgh or Cleveland. He said those can be hostile environments, going on the road in the AFC North for a young quarterback, depending on when those games could fall.”

Andrew Krammer – Access Vikings

It doesn’t necessarily seem like the competitive balance aspect — whether that be more neutral road crowds for their rookie quarterback or whatever other advantages come with playing two roadgames overseas — was the biggest driver in Minnesota’s eagerness, though.

Related: Apparently, Sportsbooks Have Not Learned Their Lesson on the Minnesota Vikings

According to Goessling, it’s Kevin O’Connell’s ability to see the bigger picture, beyond just the football game played on the field. KOC seems to understand how important back-to-back international games will be for the Minnesota Vikings brand, especially after playing in London two of the past three seasons, even prior to 2025.

“I think it it is something that you have heard them embrace And I think Kevin O’Connell specifically. I mean, every time that he’s been over there, he talks about ‘we love expanding our brand, introducing fans around the world to the Vikings and the way we do things.

It does not hurt to have a head coach who I think is open enough and understands enough of the business side of this, and the marketing side of this to say, ‘Yeah we can make this work.’ I don’t think that is an accident that this has picked up. Because the pace of this has picked up, with Kevin O’Connell as the coach. It’s three times in four years now that he’s been the head coach that they’ve been in the UK and four games in four years internationally.

Mike Zimmer did this once and you could tell he wasn’t a big fan of it…So the fact that it happened once in Mike Zimmer’s eight years and it’s now happened three times, four games in Kevin O’Connell’s four years, I don’t think that’s an accident. I think the head coach buying into this is a big factor here.

If you listen to the rest of the Vikings Access podcast uploaded on Friday, you’ll start planning your yearly Minnesota Vikings preparations around at least one international game. Because with KOC bought in on the idea of expanding the MN Vikings brand, it sounds like going overseas could become a very regular thing going forward.

For months now, we have known which teams the Vikings will play against next season. For most games, we even knew the “where”. But recently, rumors turned into reports that, not only was Minnesota expected to go overseas for a game outside the USA for the second-straight year… but they were likely to do it twice.

That’s right, one year after flying to the UK for a game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, where they earned their eighth-straight international victory over Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets, the Vikings woke up this morning expecting to play two games in that same area in 2025.

Minnesota Vikings taking extended European business trip in 2025

Last season, they played in London Week 5. One year later, they’ll play at the exact same location in Week 5 yet again, this time against the Cleveland Browns. The week before, however, they’ll just a 30-minute plane ride away, in Dublin Ireland, where they will play road team vs the Browns’ AFC North rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers (and maybe Aaron Rodgers again?).

Dublin then London! 🇮🇪🇬🇧

The #Vikings will become the first NFL team to play in back-to-back international games in different countries in 2025.https://t.co/DvUUNxFkso pic.twitter.com/1o0005Ma6Q

— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) May 13, 2025

The game against Pittsburgh will be the first game ever played in Ireland. The NFL will take over Croke Park in Dublin for the event. It is the headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association and has a capacity of 82,300, which is nearly 10,000 more than U.S. Bank Stadium, which holds 73,000 people.

Related: How Many 2025 MN Vikings Draft Picks Will Make the Final 53-Man Roster?

Yes, it’s possible that the Steelers, as the Jets did last year, will have Aaron Rodgers under center for their overseas contest against the Minnesota Vikings. The future Hall of Famer has yet to sign with a team, and Pittsburgh remains his most likely landing spot.

Set your alarm, Dublin. The NFL is coming to town! 💚

Your official 2025 NFL Dublin Game 🇮🇪 pic.twitter.com/JYMFY6zIPe

— NFL UK & Ireland (@NFLUKIRE) May 13, 2025

Vikings International Itinerary: Dublin (IE) –> London (UK)

Pittsburgh, theoretically, should be the tougher opponent of these two. But that’s largely because Kevin Stefanski’s Browns currently look like a dumpster fire. They brought back veteran Joe Flacco and drafted rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.

Meanwhile, the most expensive asset in franchise history, Deshaun Watson, is expected to miss most of the season after re-tearing his achilles in October… and they aren’t even mad about it.

So in 2025, the Minnesota Vikings will become the first NFL team ever to play back-to-back games overseas. On its face, that seems like a sizable undertaking on the surface, but in reality, it could be a blessing in disguise for Kevin O’Connell & Co.

Overseas stretch should actually benefit the 2025 MN Vikings

Not only do both the Steelers and Browns look like two teams in complete disarray, but both international contests will also turn two of Minnesota’s road games this season, into neutral site games (where they have completely dominated going all the way back to 1983).

Those who know the history understand that the MN Vikings are probably the greatest overseas NFL team… ever. Not only are they undefeated in four regular season international games, but Minnesota has won all four of its’ exhibition games abroad too.

The Vikings are indeed playing consecutive int'l games: 9/28 in Dublin (vs. Steelers) + 10/5 in London (vs. Browns). They avoid trips to Heinz Field, where they've never won, and to Cleveland (1 win since 1989). They're 4-0 in London. But 10ish days abroad will be tough.

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) May 13, 2025

Because they are playing in back-to-back weeks, the Vikings don’t have to make a trip back stateside, between contests, either. Instead, they can settle in early, knowing it’s a long trip. Hell, they’ll pretty much be the Irish/British Vikings by the time week five is done.

It stands to reason that the Minnesota Vikings will get their by week immediately following their extended stay overseas. That would mean another early week six bye, just like in 2024.

Then, as soon as those Irish Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers rumors turned into credible reports, an even harder-to-believe scenario bubbled to the surface. Not only were the Minnesota Vikings expected to play week four in Dublin, but there were whispers behind the scenes that they could play two games overseas in the same season.

Rumors:

Vikes play Steelers in Dublin- YAY!!!

Vikes play next game in London- NAY!!!

— Ben Leber (@nacholeber) May 5, 2025

How could something like this even cross the league’s mind? Well, because two of Minnesota’s scheduled AFC North road opponents in 2025 — the Steelers and the Cleveland Browns — both have international home games on their schedule, in close proximity to one another.

Minnesota Vikings 2025 European Double-Header Locked In…

So, when the NFL decided that the Vikings were the best overseas option on the Steelers’ schedule, for their game in Dublin, Ireland… they thought, why not have them hop over the Irish Sea, for another game just 583 KILOMETERS east — one hour plane ride that costs as little as $38 — for another game against the Browns back at Tottenham Hotspur, in London?

As of Friday afternoon, it appears that’s exactly what the NFL has decided to do. Over the last 12-24 hours, the MN Vikings’ 2025 international double-header has become one of the NFL’s worst-kept secrets.

Late Thursday afternoon, Arif Hassan (wideleft.football) tweeted it out as being all but official. On Friday morning, the Star Tribune’s Ben Goessling tweeted the same thing. Both matchups will be road games, and thus not affect Minnesota’s home schedule in 2025, unlike their british cameo last season.

Hearing that the Vikings will be playing internationally in back to back weeks:

• at Steelers Week 4 in Dublin at Croke Park
• at Cleveland Week 5 in London at Tottenham

— Arif Hasan, but NFL 🏈 (@ArifHasanNFL) May 8, 2025

From what I’ve heard over the past couple weeks, it appears likely the #Vikings will play back-to-back international games this fall.

They have road games against the Steelers and Browns this year; the Steelers host in Dublin and the Browns are in London. It would be the…

— Ben Goessling (@BenGoessling) May 9, 2025

In its 65 year history, the Minnesota Vikings football team has never lost a game on international soil — a perfect 8-0, (4-0 in the regular season). Now, they’ll get a chance to defend that perfect overseas W/L record, first in Ireland, then back to the UK for their second game at the iconic Tottenham Hotspur stadium, in just as many seasons.

Related: Minnesota Vikings’ Greatest Position of Need – Per Mr. DVOA

As already mentioned at the top of this article, Kevin O’Connell & Co played in the iconic European football stadium last October, against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Giants. That game, as we all know, finished in a 23-17 week five Vikings victory.