The NFL officially announced the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the annual regular-season game at London's Wembley Stadium on Oct. 23.
Tampa Bay will be the "home team" for the game scheduled for 1 p.m. ET (6 p.m. UK time) on FOX. The Bucs also played in one of the four previous games in the "international series" against New England in 2009. San Francisco beat Denver, 24-16, in last year's game.
"Our past four games in London have demonstrated the tremendous passion for NFL football that exists in the UK," commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We hope by staging another extraordinary game at Wembley that we can continue to grow our existing fan base and attract even more new fans."
With the NFL embroiled in a lockout, the game will be moved to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa if a new collective bargaining agreement isn't reached by Aug. 1.
"To return to London to play an NFL game - this is going to be fun," said Chicago Bears Chairman Michael McCaskey. "I remember how enthusiastic the fans were in 1986 when we played in Wembley Stadium and defeated the Dallas Cowboys. London fans were so welcoming and blended their traditions of singing soccer songs with the NFL-style of presenting games. Of course the Chicago Bears are very pleased to have been named the 'Team of the Year' by UK fans following the 2010 season. So we are looking forward to facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in October and playing in person before our terrific fans in the UK and Europe."
The Bears are also scheduled to open the preseason schedule in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio the day after this year's new inductees are enshrined. The full regular-season schedule will be announced at 7 p.m. Tuesday on NFL Network.
