When the Kansas City Chiefs travel to London, England on November 1 this year, they will be facing a Detroit Lions team who has been there before.
In 2014, the Lions played the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium, and after trailing by three touchdowns, rallied to put their kicker, Matt Prater, in a position to win the game on a 48-yard field goal.
The Lions won the game in dramatic fashion, 22-21.
"I know they got it done last year in a field goal in the last minute," Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos said this week. "Hopefully, I get the chance to do it. We know we have to be ready for those guys."
Santos was in London this week in conjunction with NFL's International Series.
"I'm not going to lie; I was a bit nervous to come here," he admitted. "English is not my first language, so I've been used to different American accents and then to come here and understand the British accent [was challenging].
"But trying to speak like them is really fun, too."
As part of the three regular season games that will happen overseas later this year, representatives from each of the six teams participating joined Santos in London.
They spent some time with members of Walking With The Wounded, addressed the local media and even hosted a youth flag football game during the visit.
"It's really cool interacting with the kids and seeing how competitive and how much they want to understand football and play different positions," Santos said. "It's really cool to be a part of this event here in London. I've never been to Europe, so I'm trying to soak in all this excitement."
Santos, a native of Brazil, has a personal appreciation for exploring places outside the United States.
He acknowledged that in front of a crowd that can only watch a couple regular season games each year, as it has been in the past, the atmosphere at Wembley Stadium on November 1 will be electric.
"We know there's only a few games a year and to be picked as a team to come here and immerse yourself in a different country in front of a different crowd and just to travel to a new place in such a cool place like Wembley, it's just a lot of excitement.
"As much as we like to play at home, I think coming to Wembley could be a favorite away trip."
And though it's still so far away—we are talking about a contest in Week 8—Santos expects it to be competitive.
"It's going to be a good matchup," he said of the Lions. "They are very good on defense, as much as we are very good on defense. On offense, Calvin Johnson is going to be a big threat, but we've got good players like Jamaal Charles and Jeremy Maclin.
"It's going to be a very intense matchup I think."
