LAS VEGAS — The NFL announced it will play a regular-season game in Madrid in 2025 and indicated a preference to have the Bears or Dolphins as one of the teams. If it’s the Bears, it would be as an away team rather than giving up a home game.
The league has assigned marketing rights to its teams for eight countries, and the Bears and Dolphins are the only two that have them in Spain. The Bears also have rights in the United Kingdom and will play a home game there next season.
In 2025, NFC teams play eight home games instead of nine, so they wouldn’t be asked to give one up.
“Certainly the teams who have rights there will be a consideration because they’re leaning into the market,” said Peter O’Reilly, head of the NFL’s international department. “A lot of variables go into our scheduling process every year, and the more international games we have, the more variables are added.
“In 2025, since it is an AFC year [for nine home games], if the Bears were to be part of the game, it would very likely be as a visitor.”
The Bears’ AFC road games that season will be against the Ravens, Bengals and a team from the West. The game will be at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home of Real Madrid.
As the NFL expands its international push, teams will be asked to play abroad more frequently. The Bears’ upcoming game in London will be their first since 2019 and the first time they’ve ever given up a home game, but that’ll happen more often now that owners have authorized a maximum of eight international games per season starting in 2025.
That means potentially half the league would participate each year. The date and opponent for the London game next season haven’t been set. Assuming it won’t be a divisional game, the Bears’ potential opponents are the Rams, Seahawks, Jaguars, Titans, Panthers and Patriots.
Kmet recovering
Bears tight end Cole Kmet told the Sun-Times he broke his right forearm in the regular-season finale against the Packers last month. He was in pain but didn’t realize he had broken a bone, played through it and caught three passes for 41 yards as the Bears lost 17-9.
There’s no cause for concern, though. Kmet said it will have no impact on his offseason training.
“A couple more weeks in this brace and I’ll be ready to go,” he said. “No surgery. Good to roll for OTAs. Looking forward to it.”
Kmet signed a four-year, $50 million contract extension in August and delivered the best season of his career. He caught 73 passes for 719 yards and six touchdowns — all highs. In his four seasons with the Bears, he has played in all 68 possible games, including the playoffs.
Fire alarm
The 49ers were annoyed Thursday when the fire alarm went off at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa at around 6 a.m. It woke up players and took almost 20 minutes to stop.
Running back Christian McCaffrey suspected it was some form of sabotage.
“Anytime you’re not at home, you have to expect adversity,” he said. “As soon as the fire alarm went off, I just laughed. Of course this would happen. It’s part of it.
“Is it random? No. There’s no way it’s random.”
It hasn’t been the smoothest week for the 49ers, who also were less than thrilled with their practice field at UNLV. They said the turf was softer than what they were used to, and coach Kyle Shanahan said, “I wish things were better, but we’ll deal with how the field is.”
This and that
The NFL will honor Bears great Dick Butkus and other former players who died in the last year with an in-memoriam presentation before the Super Bowl, but it won’t be televised.
• The Chiefs ruled out All-Pro guard Joe Thuney, signaling that former Illinois and Lincoln Way East standout Nick Allegretti will start in the Super Bowl.
• Chiefs special-teams coordinator Dave Toub has been ecstatic watching Cairo Santos’ resurgence with the Bears the last four seasons. Toub coached Santos with the Chiefs in 2014-17. Toub is especially impressed that Santos is succeeding at Soldier Field: “I know what that place is all about. If you can do it in Chicago, you can do it anywhere.”
