The Philadelphia Eagles will kick off their 2024 NFL campaign against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil on Friday night, and not all the players are enthusiastic about starting the season on another continent.
Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts seems to be the only player with a positive spin on traveling to Brazil.
“I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Hurts said on Monday in a press conference. “Something to be very excited about — you know, the international stage. Brazil, from what I’ve heard, is a very amazing place, beautiful place, and a very, very passionate place as well when it comes to sports and their fans, and so I’m excited to get a taste of that.”
Hurts is the face of the team and his likeness is emblazoned several stories tall as a mural on a building in Sao Paulo, where the Eagles and Packers will square off at Neo Quimica Arena at 7:15 p.m. CDT Friday. Of course, he is going to have a positive spin on the Eagles playing in a potential war zone.
Some Eagles Players Don’t Like The Idea Of Playing Week 1 In Brazil
Not every Eagles player has the same attitude toward the game, which is 1200 miles further from Philly than London, where the NFL set off the season in 2023 The Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off the 2023 NFL International Games against the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium, in what was their landmark 10th regular-season home game in London.
Safety Darius Slay says he took the precautions that the league laid out for traveling NFL players very seriously and isn’t thrilled about entering a country that has such a reputation for excessive criminal activity.
At the very least people are bugging out about the recent social media ban.
On Monday, Brazil’s Supreme Court “confirmed an order to ban Elon Musk’s social network X in Brazil and fine those who don’t comply with it by using a virtual private network, or VPN,” according to Bloomberg.
Eagles Safety Darius Slay Doesn’t Want To Play In Brazil Because Of High Crime Rate
“Week 1 I’ve been looking forward to and can’t wait, ” Slay said, “but, man, I don’t want to go to Brazil. You want to know why? They already told us not to leave the hotel. We can’t do too much because the crime rate is crazy. I’m like, ‘NFL, why ‘yall’ want to send us somewhere that the crime rate is (this) high,” Slay said.
“The teams also had a list of dos and don’ts spelled out for them when they are outside the hotels,” according to NFL reporter Breer wrote. “One was to not walk outside with their phones out of their pockets. Another was to not respond to any weird messages on their phones.”
Eagles star receiver A.J. Brown told Philadelphia media that he plans to stay confined inside the team hotel.
“I’m just trying to go down there to win a football game and come back home,” Brown said. “After hearing all of this stuff, you know, I’m probably just going to stay in my room.”
AJ Brown and Darius Slay Will Stay In Hotel, Not Bring Family
Slay will do the same. He doesn’t even want his family to travel.
“The first thing people think is that something terrible can happen. I told my family not to come down there because I’m not going to be anywhere to be found, really. I’m going to be in the hotel, chillin, minding my business, playing my game after a long 9.5 hour flight. I have no intentions of doing anything. I’m going to eat hotel food.”
In his Monday column on September 2, senior NFL writer Albert Breer revealed some measures the league is taking to protect its players and personnel.
“NFL Security met with both teams, and the Eagles and Green Bay Packers players are being advised strongly—if not flat-out told—to do what (A.J.) Brown said he’d do…outside of the trips they’ll make to Arena Corinthians, where the game is Friday,” Breer wrote.
“They said yeah, it’s going to be a bit crazy down there,” Slay added. “Police said they are going to try to be the best they can be with topflight security in the world, we hope for that.”
These guys will have to suck it up and make it happen, like their captain is doing.
After the 1-7 collapse that Philly endured last season, ending with an embarrassing 32-9 thrashing by the Tampa Bay Bucs in the playoffs, Hurts knows he has plenty of reconciliation to handle with Eagles fans, and the first step is defeating a Green Bay Packers team that advanced to the NFC Championship Game last season. The time or place doesn’t matter.
