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By PACKER REPORT
By Daire Carragher
5 off-field stories for Packers kicking off season in Brazil
The Packers are bound for São Paulo in just a couple of days.
The week is finally upon us. The NFL season is here once again and the Green Bay Packers are one of the 8 teams lucky enough to kick their season off with a stand-alone game.
On Friday, the Packers will play a regular season game outside of the United States for just the second time in their history — the organization didn’t seem too thrilled about the prospect of traveling 5,400 miles before a ball is even snapped, but at the very least Brian Gutekunst appreciates the value of taking a road game out of Philadelphia — one of the more notoriously aggressive crowds in the NFL.
Which brings us to our first point:
1. Packers fans expected to outnumber Eagles fans in São Paulo.
International games are always a neutral affair. Especially when it’s the first ever game to take place in the given country — which will be the case in Brazil on Friday night. Expect diehard NFL fans of every team to flock from all over South America for what will be the first experience of professional American football for many.
Green Bay famously brought one of the most impressive single-team crowds to an international game when they traveled to London in 2022. However, I would anticipate Friday will be the least-traveled-to international game among American fans since the series began in 2007. São Paulo is one of the world’s largest cities, however it doesn’t quite match London or Mexico City when it comes to transport links from the United States.
That being said, the Packers are a massive brand in Brazil. The league estimates that Packers fans make up 1/8th of Brazil’s NFL fanbase — more than any other team.
With precisely zero exclusive international marketing rights deals, the Packers don’t place a ton of emphasis on expanding their brand internationally — they don’t really need to. But the Packers continue to grow beyond US borders regardless.
Global interest in the sport has increased exponentially over the last 30 years, and the Packers just so happen to hold the 2nd most victories of any franchise during that timespan. There are other factors too — one such example specific to Brazil, is the color scheme of green and yellow. Oh yeah, about that…
2. The ‘can’t wear green’ thing isn’t real oh my god
I hate that I have to explain this.
For some reason, the ‘ban on green’ discourse took on a life of its own, not helped by misinformed Packers RB Josh Jacobs — who hinted that the color ban was gang-related and that the team would be transported around in an armored bus.
ITS LITERALLY JUST PALMEIRAS COLORS. For the love of God.
Green is one of the national colors of Brazil. It is adored in every context besides from Corinthians fans in their rivalry with Palmerias — who literally play in the same city! When Palmerias play at Corinthians Stadium, they wear green! Their fans in the stands wear green!
The stadium has hosted several Brazil games — who wear green — including the opening match of the 2014 World Cup. This is like suggesting that Man United fans wouldn’t be allowed to wear red for a game at Michigan stadium because of Ohio State. It’s… stupid.
The Packers will wear Green as the road team. Perhaps the home team Eagles team wanted to pay homage to their hosts, SC Corinthians, by matching the team’s color scheme of white and black.
3. It’s going to be a ‘true’ night game
Philly’s decision to dress in lighter colors has nothing to do with the sun — It’s Winter time in the Southern hemisphere and the sun will set over three hours before the scheduled kickoff.
Moreover, to match the standard night-game kickoff times in America, the game will begin at 9:15pm local time — making it one of the latest NFL kickoff times ever — I can’t accurately fact check this — but I couldn’t find a single game that kicked off after 9pm local time in league history.
4. Potential ban on X/Twitter in Brazil
Elon Musk and the Brazilian government have been squabbling for quite some time now, and it seems as though the world’s 6th most populous country is about to pull the plug on one of its most-used social media sites.
The ban, which will come into place with immediate effect over the coming days, is more likely than not to be in effect when the NFL comes to town next Friday. The teams official X accounts (along with @NFL) shouldn’t have much trouble sending footage to a social admin in the offices back in the United States, but it may create quite a unique situation for the media and reporters attending the game.
So if you don’t hear from me, my VPN isn’t working.
5. The added advantage of playing early
The Packers will arrive back in the US on Saturday morning, where the mere 2 hour time difference will have virtually no effect on their body clocks. They will enjoy a full day to recover on Saturday, and get to enjoy the beginning of the season on Sunday afternoon with Scott Hanson and the rest of us.
There is an inherent advantage to playing early to begin the season — you get the extra few days of rest afterwards without the typical punishment of a quick 4-day turnaround from the game prior.
This additional time will afford Packers’ coaches some spare hours to look ahead to their upcoming matchups with both the Colts and Titans — Matt LaFleur has admitted in the past to looking ahead an extra week when you have extra days between games, ridiculing the theory of ‘one game at a time’. Neither the Colts or Titans would be considered regular opponents for the Packers, so the extra time to do some homework will be welcomed by their coaching staff.
