Thirteen days from now marks nineteen years since the National Football League played its first regular-season game in Europe. On October 28, 2007, the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins 13-10 at Wembley Stadium in London. Attendance was 81,176. Eli Manning scored the only offensive touchdown on a 10-yard scramble. Lawrence Tynes kicked two field goals. The International Series — and every later London, Mexico City, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, São Paulo and Madrid kickoff — starts on that Sunday.
The Giants entered the day 5-2 and left 6-2. Miami fell to 0-8. New York would finish that season by winning Super Bowl XLII. The London afternoon was not a highlight-reel blowout. It was a low-scoring, run-heavy, history-making grind that proved a full NFL Sunday could travel.
Why October 28, 2007 still matters
Exhibition and American Bowl games had crossed the Atlantic before. Regular-season standings had not. Wembley 2007 put two Week 8 records on the line in front of a sellout British crowd, with the home designation assigned to Miami and the Giants as the visiting club.
Pro Football Archives and the official gamebook place the kickoff at Wembley Stadium, London, England, under overcast skies around 59 degrees with a stiff wind. The game lasted three hours and two minutes. Those dry details matter because they are the first line of a new league geography: a complete NFL Sunday, counted in the standings, outside North America.
How the Giants won 13-10
New York led 13-0 at halftime and needed every point. Tynes opened with a 20-yard field goal in the first quarter. Early in the second, Manning kept and ran 10 yards for a touchdown; Tynes converted. With two seconds left in the half, Tynes added a 41-yard kick to make it 13-0.
Miami answered with Jay Feely’s 29-yard field goal late in the third. In the fourth, Cleo Lemon found Ted Ginn Jr. for a 21-yard touchdown, Feely’s kick cutting the deficit to three with 1:54 left. The Giants ran out the clock on a day built for Brandon Jacobs, not for a shootout.
| Quarter | Scoring play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Lawrence Tynes 20-yard field goal | NYG 3–0 |
| 2nd | Eli Manning 10-yard run (Tynes kick) | NYG 10–0 |
| 2nd | Lawrence Tynes 41-yard field goal | NYG 13–0 |
| 3rd | Jay Feely 29-yard field goal | NYG 13–3 |
| 4th | Ted Ginn Jr. 21-yard pass from Cleo Lemon (Feely kick) | NYG 13–10 |
The box score: a running game in London
New York rushed for 189 yards on 37 carries. Jacobs led with 23 carries for 131 yards. Reuben Droughns added 27. Manning finished 5 carries for 25 yards and the game’s only rushing score, while completing just 8 of 22 passes for 59 yards. Miami totaled 126 rush yards and 119 net pass yards on 17-of-30 throwing from Lemon.
| Team | Rush yards | Net pass yards | First downs | TOP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Giants | 189 (37 att) | 49 | 19 | 32:05 |
| Miami Dolphins | 126 (26 att) | 119 | 18 | 27:55 |
Both sides were flagged seven times. New York lost a fumble; Miami lost two. The Giants’ defense, with Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora still on the edge, kept Miami off the board until the second half. Plaxico Burress and Amani Toomer started at receiver. The roster that would win a Super Bowl three months later was already largely in place.
What the International Series became
One Wembley Sunday became an annual London habit, then a multi-city calendar. Later International Series games stretched the map to Mexico City, Toronto (earlier Northern Series experiments aside), Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, São Paulo and Madrid. In 2026 the league is still booking European and global dates — including London weeks that now feel routine because 2007 proved the product could travel.
For the Giants, London was a midseason road win on the way to an improbable championship run. For Miami, it was another loss in a 1-15 season. For the league, it was the first regular-season stamp on a European passport.
Watch: London’s first regular-season Sunday
The first clip is extended Week 8 highlights from that Wembley afternoon — Manning’s scramble, the Tynes kicks, and Ginn’s late score. The second is a longer look at how the International Series grew out of those early London games.
For more October history on WhyNFL, read October 27, 2002: Emmitt passes Payton, October 25, 1970: Blanda’s miracle begins and October 17, 1920: Staleys at Rock Island. Team pages: Giants and Dolphins. Super Bowl context lives on our Super Bowl hub.
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