Lights Go Out Mid-Snap at the Bernabeu: NFL Madrid Game Goes Dark With 1:58 Left and Fans Think Their TVs Broke
The NFL's international game at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Spain, produced a rare sight on November 8: with the Cincinnati Bengals leading the Atlanta Falcons 34-17 and just 1 minute 58 seconds left, the stadium lights suddenly went out just as the Bengals snapped the ball to run out the clock, plunging the field into darkness and cutting the television broadcast to black.
According to the Associated Press, the down did not count and had to be replayed. According to Heavy, quarterback Joe Burrow had just handed off to running back Samaje Perine, who appeared to gain more than six yards for a first down when the lights went out, leaving only a few small fixtures on; the lights came back within seconds. On the replayed down, Perine ran further for a first down and slid down, and the Bengals then kneeled out the rest of the clock to close a 34-17 win.
The clip spread on social media that night, and many fans watching at home first assumed their own televisions had failed. Fan Tanner Phifer posted on X: "I thought my TV was messing up, but no, the lights went out in the Madrid Stadium in the #Bengals vs #Falcons game." The MLFootball account, which was covering the game, posted that it had never seen anything like it. According to the New York Post, the last time the lights went out mid-match at the Bernabeu was in 2012, during the 61st minute of a La Liga match between Real Madrid and Racing Santander, which paused for a couple of minutes; the most famous blackout in American football came at Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, when the Superdome in New Orleans lost power for 34 minutes.
The game was the NFL's second straight regular-season game in Madrid and drew 78,660 fans. See GSM's match report from the same day for the game itself.
Source: Associated Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：马德里伯纳乌球场资料图，2026年1月摄（Badefa摄，CC0，经Wikimedia Commons），非本次NFL比赛画面。/ File photo: Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid in January 2026 (by Badefa, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons); not a photo from this NFL game.
