The Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers will face off tonight in their first game of the NFL season. But this season opener is a bit different. As the league seeks to expand into international markets, the two football teams have traveled to Brazil to make history by playing the first-ever regular season NFL game in South America.
The showdown between the two contenders, which both made it to the playoffs last season, will feature special coverage. Read on for more details on the game and how to watch.
The Eagles will play the Packers on Friday, Sept. 6, at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil. The matchup will mark the first time in more than 50 years that an NFL game is played on a Friday night on opening weekend. The league's typical football schedule includes games on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. ET.
The Brazil game will stream live exclusively on Peacock. With the highly anticipated Week 1 for the NFL, Peacock is offering a limited-time offer of $4.99 with the code TGIF. (Peacock is owned by TODAY.com's parent company, NBCUniversal.)
The Eagles will be considered the “home” team for the game.
A Special Halftime Show
The league's first-ever Brazil game will feature a special halftime performance from Brazilian pop sensation Anitta. The performance will feature some of her “most popular hits,” though no other details on her set list have been revealed. “Growing up in Brazil has completely shaped my journey as an artist and of course, as a person,” Anitta said in a recent statement. “It means everything to be able to perform in São Paulo at the NFL’s first game in Brazil, where I can bring fans around the world the excitement and joy of our amazing culture. It’s really a dream come true to be a part of this moment.” Peacock will show highlights of the show during the stream, and the full performance will be shared on the NFL's YouTube page after the game.
NFL Goes International
The National Football League kicks off its first-ever game in South America on Friday night, as the league pushes to grow its footprint overseas. As the NFL enters the Southern Hemisphere, professional football has never been stronger financially. Last season, the league pulled in $13 billion in revenue, and the average team is worth about $6.5 billion, according to CNBC's Official NFL Team Valuations. But as the league tries to sustain its growth, international markets are a priority.
Ahead of the league's inaugural game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC's “Squawk Box” that the league aims to become an international sports property. This season, the NFL will play five games abroad in Europe and South America. By next season, the league will play eight games overseas. “The reality is, when we bring our brand of our regular season games here, it creates a whole new environment,” Goodell said. “It creates a spark and everything seems to really take off after that point in time,” he added.
Goodell said it has been a learning process playing games abroad, as the league sees how players handle long flights and different time zones. “When [the players] get back to their home cities tomorrow, they'll be on a similar time zone, and eight days before their next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone but an 11-hour trip. “This is all part of learning how many games we can play,” Goodell said.
As the NFL plays in places such as London, Germany and Brazil, it not only creates new fans, but it also helps grow sponsorship opportunities and deepen the league's relationships with international media partners. The league had two sponsorship deals in Germany before it played games there starting in 2022. Today, the NFL has 15 agreements. The league has also allowed teams to build brand awareness and fans abroad through its Global Markets Program. This program, currently in its third year, gives teams marketing rights in other countries. This season, 25 franchises are participating in the program across 19 international markets. Among the deals, the Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia; the Los Angeles Rams have rights in South Korea and Japan; and the Seattle Seahawks have rights in Canada and are expanding to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Goodell also spoke to CNBC about the NFL's current media rights landscape, and said the addition of streaming options has benefited the league and its fans. The NFL has broadcast deals with Fox, Disney's ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal and CBS, in addition to streamers YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock, all worth an estimated $11.4 billion in 2024. Some games are streaming exclusive, including Friday's matchup in Brazil, which will air on NBC's Peacock platform. “The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are and our fans are moving onto steaming platforms,” he said. Yet, Goodell said 85% of NFL games are still available on broadcast television. “We really think that our policy are really beneficial to our growth, to supporting more people watching NFL football and the fans' enjoyment of it,” he added.
The X Ban
A lot has changed on the app formerly known as Twitter since Elon Musk bought it in 2022. But what has remained constant is that it is indispensable to sports fans. Unlike Instagram, TikTok or other popular social media apps, the microblogging platform offers the perfect format to dash off quick, real-time reactions to major plays, referee calls and coaching decisions. The same is true for sports journalists, who regularly post updates on X during games. These reporters are on the ground and have direct channels to team officials, so their accounts are especially popular for sports fans during big games.
The Philadelphia Inquirer sent four sports reporters to Brazil to cover the game, but in an act of caution, posted on X to clarify that these journalists are not violating Brazilian law. “Due to the ban on X in the country, posts from their accounts are being relayed back here and posted on their behalves,” the newspaper posted on X.
Zach Berman, a reporter for PHLY, has been tweeting from Brazil, much to fans’ confusion. Then, his wife and children posted a selfie revealing that they are the ones making these posts. Meanwhile, The Athletic’s Green Bay Packers beat reporter, Matt Schneidman, has eschewed X altogether, directing his followers to his Instagram.
The decision to ban X in Brazil has been contentious. The dispute dates back to April, when Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes demanded that X remove seven right-wing accounts posting misinformation in support of former president Jair Bolsonaro. But Musk did not comply with the takedown requests, even though he’s complied with similar takedown requests from governments in India and Turkey.
By August, X said that Moraes had threatened the company’s Brazil legal representative with arrest if X did not comply with the removal requests. So, X shut down corporate operations in Brazil, and in response, the Brazilian court ordered an immediate countrywide ban on X.
Even outside of sports, online fandoms tend to feature large Brazilian populations — it’s Brazilian users behind some of X’s biggest fan accounts for artists like Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus and Chappell Roan. Now, as the Eagles and Packers prepare to face off in São Paulo, the cultural impact of the ban has only become more obvious.
Green is a No-No at Corinthians Arena
Both NFL teams in Brazil this week usually play in kits featuring their own distinctive shade of green. At the Corinthians Arena, however, that colour is usually banned because of the team’s intense rivalry with fellow Sao Paulo club Palmeiras. Corinthians go as far as to fine their players for wearing green. ESPN reported in 2021 that former Manchester City forward Jo wore green boots while playing for Corinthians and had to pay up, despite believing they were turquoise blue.
As the ‘home’ team today, the Eagles have therefore decided to switch to a black and white uniform for the first time, the same colours as Corinthians’ home kit. The Packers risk being frowned upon as they will wear their traditional white, yellow and green uniforms. At the least, the colours are similar to the gold and green seen on Brazil’s national flag.
This opening-weekend game will be one of five regular-season NFL matches played internationally in 2024, with three in London (two at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, one at Wembley Stadium) in October and another in Munich, Germany the following month. “Bringing the NFL to new continents, countries and cities around the world is a critical element of our plan to continue to grow the game globally,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.
NFL clubs approved a vote for up to eight international games in 2025, when it has already been announced the league will break new ground by playing at Spain’s Bernabeu stadium, home of 2023-24 Champions League final winners Real Madrid. The league has also staged several regular-season matches in Mexico in the past two decades.
