It was announced in February that the LA Chargers would be the host team at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo for a 2025 regular-season game. The date was revealed to be similar to last year's Week 1 schedule as Friday, September 5th. The Super Bowl Champion Eagles will kick the 2025 season off on Thursday of the same week.
The league will officially announce LA's season opener opponent this coming week, but it appears that a report from Front Office Sports has already revealed the mystery team.
According to the report, the Kansas City Chiefs will be the visiting team that the Chargers host in Brazil.
Chargers will host Chiefs in Week 1 Brazil game, per reports
It's obviously suboptimal for the Chargers to lose a divisional home game in the first week of the season, but it makes sense from the league's viewership standpoint. It also doesn't come as a complete surprise.
The Athletic's Nate Taylor and Daniel Popper coauthored a report in April that claimed the Chiefs would be the Bolts' opponent in Week 1.
Per the Front Office Sports report, it will be the first NFL game to be broadcast for free on YouTube. YouTube has been the exclusive home of residential NFL Sunday Ticket since the start of the 2023 season.
The rest of the Chargers' schedule will probably be impacted by hosting the Chiefs in Brazil for Week 1. In 2024, the Eagles hosted the Packers in the Friday Brazil kickoff game. They were then given a 10 day break before hosting the Falcons in Philadelphia for Monday Night Football. The Eagles were given a relatively early Week 5 bye week.
That doesn't necessarily mean that the Chargers' schedule will play out the same way. But it's a decent reference point for what it could look like. Certainly, an early BYE week is probable with all the travel that the Chargers will open the season with.
A Week 1 win against the Chiefs could put the Chargers on the map as contenders for the 2025 campaign.
It's not the best for season ticket holders who were hoping to see Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes square off at SoFi Stadium, but perhaps LA can make the best of this opportunity on one of the biggest stages of the NFL season.