The Bengals are heading to Madrid with a 201-member traveling party, and the scale of the operation underlines just how much work goes into an NFL game overseas. With Sunday’s game against the Falcons approaching, the club’s travel plan has become a major undertaking before a ball is even kicked.
Jeff Brickner, the Bengals’ director of operations planning, has spent the past six months putting the trip together, with the organization now in the final stages before departure. The team will board a 306-seat American Airlines jet on Tuesday night for the flight to Spain, where the Bengals will face the Falcons in Madrid at 9:30 a.m. Cincinnati time.
A trip built around the details
Brickner has been central to the process from the start, beginning in May when he started collecting players’ passports after the international-game announcement. At the same time, Adam Knollman began the inventory planning, another reminder that the overseas challenge is about far more than the football itself.
“The biggest thing is we're just trying to handle the details so the players and coaches can focus on football,” Brickner said. That is the essence of the operation: remove the distractions, make the travel as smooth as possible, and leave the team to prepare for the Falcons in Madrid.
The aircraft itself has been chosen with player comfort in mind. Brickner said, “What was very attractive about this aircraft is it has 60 lay-flat seats,” adding, “Lay-flat is allowing our players to stretch out. And there are eight of them that are oversized and made for big people, so it gives those kinds of guys a little extra room.”
Why the logistics matter
The Bengals are not just moving players and coaches. The club is also building temporary stadium operations and sorting customs paperwork for what is being described as the third international game ever in the team’s history. That means the travel plan has to cover equipment, timing and every practical detail that comes with taking a full NFL operation to Spain.
Knollman described how all-encompassing the preparation has been. “The day it was announced. That's when the planning started,” he said, before adding that “it's honestly on your mind since whatever that day was. It consumes you.” He also pointed to the level of detail involved in the equipment side of the trip: “You have to inventory it all the way down to the country of origin.”
That kind of preparation explains why the Bengals have treated the Madrid trip as a project in itself. The club last played an international game in 2019, in London in Zac Taylor’s first season, and this one comes with even more moving parts because of the size of the traveling group and the demands of a game in Spain.
The timing also matters. The Bengals are coming off an overtime win over the Titans, so the focus now shifts quickly from one result to another major stage in a different country. For the players, the challenge is simple enough: travel well, settle in, and be ready for Sunday. For the staff, the real work has been done behind the scenes over the past six months.
