BERLIN \u2013 Raheem Morris remembers Olympic Stadium for the same reason most people do.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where Jesse Owens won a gold medal in front of Hitler,\u201d the Atlanta Falcons coach said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy when you think you\u2019re going to be in that same exact stadium. It\u2019s just an honor to come here and play.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Owens won four golds at the 1936 Olympics as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party were becoming early adopters in the concept of sportswashing. On Friday night, Morris will show the team a video of Owens\u2019 Olympic Games and legacy. On Sunday, Atlanta (3-5) will play the Indianapolis Colts (7-2) at the same arena in the NFL\u2019s first regular-season game in Berlin.<\/p>\n
Morris\u2019 memory of Olympic Stadium is not the only touchpoint these Falcons have with the building, though. Practice-squad place kicker Lenny Krieg is a Berlin native who has been to the stadium more than 50 times for professional soccer matches. Krieg, who was signed by Atlanta this offseason as part of the NFL\u2019s International Player Pathway program, said that he expects to have nearly 300 family and friends in attendance for Sunday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Atlanta\u2019s new kicker, Zane Gonzalez, also has soccer memories tied to Olympic Stadium. His favorite player, France\u2019s Zinedine Zidane, played his final professional match there in the 2006 World Cup final. Gonzalez and his wife travel annually to Europe to watch soccer, he said, and that familiarity could help this weekend. Soccer fields like the one at Olympic Stadium are often slicker than NFL fields, and Gonzalez will be wearing longer cleats than usual this week as a precaution, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made sure before I came, I had my passport ready to go,\u201d said Gonzalez, who was signed Tuesday after the team released Parker Romo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Falcons offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford played for the Rhein Fire and coached for the Frankfurt Galaxy in the World League of American Football. He searched this week, he said, for some of his old team gear to wear to Friday\u2019s practices, but couldn\u2019t find any.<\/p>\n Atlanta offensive lineman Kyle Hinton\u2019s memories of Germany are all centered on American football. Hinton played his freshman and sophomore seasons of high school football at Vilseck High School at the U.S. Army garrison in Bavaria, where he was teammates with Minnesota Vikings running back Zavier Scott. Hinton, who will reunite with two of his former high school coaches and several friends on this trip, is expected to make his first start of the season at right guard in place of the injured Matthew Bergeron, who did not make the trip to Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely weird how it all comes around, but I can\u2019t get too much into the sentimental,\u201d Hinton said. \u201cI\u2019m treating this like a business trip. It just so happens to be in a place I used to live in.\u201d<\/p>\n The Falcons arrived for the business trip on Friday morning local time. After leaving Atlanta on Thursday evening, the team landed in Berlin and immediately hit the field at the practice facility for FC Union, a team in the Bundesliga, Germany\u2019s top soccer league. The team arranged its travel schedule after talking to multiple sleep and sports-science experts, including at NASA, Morris said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is always going to be a disagreement about the best day to go,\u201d he said. \u201cWe chose the day we did after a bunch of discussions with a bunch of different people, not just in our building but outside our building.\u201d<\/p>\n The Atlanta Falcons practice facility for the day is the home of FC Union in Berlin. Atlanta will hold its first practice in Germany shortly. pic.twitter.com\/UmpvNohjVx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Josh Kendall (@JoshTheAthletic) November 7, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Atlanta\u2019s traveling party arrived in Berlin at 7:30 a.m. local time and brought the buses straight to their practice facility, where they held a 90-minute practice session, the first 30 minutes of which were open for the nearly 100 media members in attendance.<\/p>\n Large media contingent here as Falcons take the field. pic.twitter.com\/P7HqUl2bjt<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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