Packer Central

Packers Will Play Eagles in NFL’s Historic Brazil Debut

The Green Bay Packers will make history when they play the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paolo on Friday, Sept. 6.

Bill Huber

Arena Corinthians
Arena Corinthians / Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers have been chosen to play in the NFL’s historic South America debut. They will battle the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday night, Sept. 6, in São Paulo, Brazil.

It will be a home game for the Eagles. The game will be played one night after the Kansas City Chiefs kick off the 2024 NFL season and two days before most of the rest of the league gets started on Sunday, Sept. 8.

“As global growth continues to be a critical and strategic priority for the NFL and its 32 clubs, we are thrilled to have the Green Bay Packers playing against the Philadelphia Eagles in our first-ever game in South America," said Gerrit Meier, the managing director and head of NFL International.

“With over 35 million passionate fans in Brazil, the Friday night 2024 regular season opener in São Paulo will bring an incredible energy – marking a historic moment for our sport internationally.”

The Packers will get to keep their full complement of nine home games for this season.

“We’re looking forward to being a part of this historic matchup against the Eagles in São Paulo,” Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said. “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. 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 and Cleveland Browns were the finalists to play the Eagles in the game. Before the annual Tailgate Tour rolled out of Lambeau Field on Tuesday morning, Murphy seemed to indicate that Green Bay would be the choice.

“We’re either the first- or second-most popular team in Brazil. Apparently, they like green and gold,” Murphy said with a laugh. “I think New England might be ahead of us because of Tom Brady and Gisele but I think that’s a few years [ago]. I think we’re very popular there. As we talked about, we’re kind of the people’s team. People really like the idea of a community-owned team, with our history and tradition.”

The Packers were the last team to play an international game – they lost to the Giants in London in 2022 – but are the first to play in South America.

“This is very important for the league,” Murphy said. “The Packers are very popular in Brazil. If we’re chosen, we’ll gladly go.”

The game will match Packers quarterback Jordan Love against Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. In a 2022 game in Philadelphia that was won by the Eagles, Love replaced an injured Aaron Rodgers and led the team to 10 points in two possessions. That game helped solidify the decision to trade Rodgers and move forward with Love.

In Philly’s 40-33 win, the Eagles rushed for an appalling 363 yards against the downtrodden Packers. Hurts threw for 153 yards but ran for 157. Love was 6-of-9 for 113 yards and one touchdown off the bench.

This offseason, the Packers signed running back Josh Jacobs while the Eagles signed running back Saquon Barkley. Barkley is fired up about the game.

The game will be played at Corinthians Arena, which seated more than 63,000 fans for a World Cup soccer match in 2014.

Of note: Peacock will exclusively stream the game. The game also will be available via an over-the-air broadcast for fans living in the teams’ local markets as well as NFL+.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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