Dolphins Brazil Game Closer to Reality

The NFL approved more international games during the winter owner meetings

The NFL made it official Wednesday that there indeed will be a regular season game in Brazil in 2024, at the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paolo to be more precise.

And while the Miami Dolphins certainly seem like a logical candidate to be involved in the game, the teams participating in that first-ever game in Brazil will not be announced until early next year, with the exact date and time to be revealed when the full 2024 schedule is announced, usually in May.

The news Wednesday follows an ESPN International report that went as far as to suggest the Brazil game would be the 2024 season opener.

And the Dolphins connection comes from the fact that Miami is the only team in the NFL that received rights to Brazil as part of the league's global markets program.

The Dolphins also have rights to England and Spain, though they share those with other teams.

The Dolphins do not have rights to Germany, but the Kansas City Chiefs do and they were the host team for the Miami-KC matchup in Week 9 this season.

Because NFC teams have the extra home games in 2024 based on the league's scheduling formula — the Dolphins home game against Carolina this season was the so-called 17th game — it figures that somebody from that conference would serve as the host team.

Based on that scheduling formula, the Dolphins' nine road opponents for next season: against the three AFC East opponents, Houston, Indianapolis, the L.A. Rams, Seattle, and the AFC North team that will finish in the same place in the standings (right now that would be Baltimore).

The Dolphins' "17th game" next season will be against the NFC North team that finishes in the same spot in the standings, and first place in that division currently belongs to the Detroit Lions and former Miami interim head coach Dan Campbell.

That Miami at Detroit matchup, should it come to pass, also would make for a pretty interesting start to the Thanksgiving Day tripleheader.

The NFL also announced an expansion of the international schedule from four to eight games starting in 2025, with new markets and host cities to be announced at a later date.

A couple of interesting notes on the international games:

-- No club will be required to play more than one regular season game outside of North America in the same season unless they specifically choose to.

-- Each club designated to play in an international regular season game will be permitted to select two of their regular season opponents that will not be eligible to be scheduled as their opponent in an international game. International games may not be scheduled after Week 14 of the NFL season.

DOLPHINS AND INTERNATIONAL GAMES

The Dolphins, of course, are no strangers to playing internationally.

They have played outside of the United States six times overall, including two of the past three seasons.

The Dolphins lost both of those recent games, 21-14 against Kansas City in Germany this season and 23-20 against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, England, in 2021.

The Dolphins haven't have great success in those international games, with only one victory to bring back — a 38-14 decision against the Raiders in London in 2014.

Miami also lost against the Giants in London in 2007, lost against the New York Jets in London in 2015, and lost against the New Orleans Saints in London in 2017.

Additionally, the Dolphins have played a regular season game in Canada, defeating the Buffalo Bills in Toronto during their playoff run of 2008.

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