It’s Friday. Are you ready for some…
…NFL football?
Wait, what the?
And in Brazil.
Double-what-the?
Yep. The National Football League will play a Friday night game the first week of the season, and that game will match the Green Bay Packers against the Philadelphia Eagles, at the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday night, Sept. 6, confirmed by the Associated Press, and others (Packers will face Eagles in Brazil in Friday night season opener).
The game will be streamed exclusively on Peacock and will be available in the Green Bay and Philadelphia markets on their local TV.
It’s the first time the league will play on Friday night since the 1970 season, when the then-St. Louis Cardinals played at the L.A. Rams, and that was also an opening-weekend game.
Corinthians Arena is normally a soccer venue. It’s the former home of the World Cup (2014) and the Olympics, two years later.
For their part, the Packers put a positive spin on it, publicly. Green Bay CEO Mark Murphy said the team was looking forward to the matchup in a press release.
“We’re excited to play in front of our devoted fans in Brazil and help build upon the international popularity of the NFL and the Packers,” Murphy said. “We had a great experience playing internationally for the first time a couple of years ago and we’re proud to be part of the league’s continued global growth.”
The Packers played the New York Giants (and lost) in London in the 2022 season.
Technically, the Eagles are the home team for this game – which means they’re giving up a game at Lincoln Financial Field. You have to wonder if maybe they’re not too happy about this.
That’s us wondering, NFL, not putting words into the Eagles’ mouths.
