The Green Bay Packers will play the Philadelphia Eagles when the NFL holds its first regular season game in Brazil.
The Sept. 6 game in Sao Paulo will mark the first time since 1970 that the NFL will play a Friday night game during the opening weekend of the season.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell had said in February that the Eagles would be the home team for the game. The NFL announced Wednesday that the Packers will face the Eagles.
The match will take place at the Corinthians Arena, home of the Brazilian football team Corinthians. The venue was used during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Corinthians have an informal ban on the color green, worn by their bitter rivals Palmeiras, around the club. The Packers and Eagles will both wear green, while the Eagles will wear the color as the home team. In 2021, Corinthians imposed a fine on their striker Jo for wearing green boots. Jo later said that the boots were actually “turquoise blue”.
“I would never wear green boots because of my history with Corinthians, a club I have loved since childhood,” he said. “I would never disrespect Corinthians, let alone the fans. I have always honored this shirt and I will always honor it.”
There is precedent for teams wearing jerseys with green accents in the stadium. Brazil and Nigeria, who use green in their jerseys, played at the venue during the 2016 Olympics. Nigeria played in their white away jersey with green numbers, and Brazil played in their famous yellow jerseys with green trim.
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The topic came up during the press conference to announce the match, when Sao Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes joked: “What color are the teams’ shirts?”
This will be the Packers’ second international game in the last three years. They played their first regular season match outside the United States in 2022, when they lost 27–22 to the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
“We look forward to being part of this historic game against the Eagles in Sao Paulo,” Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement. “We are excited to play in front of our dedicated fans in Brazil and help build on the international popularity of the NFL and the Packers. We had a great experience when we played internationally for the first time a few years ago and we are proud to be part of the league’s continued global growth.”
The game will stream exclusively on Peacock and will also be available on free-to-air television in the Eagles and Packers local markets.
The last time the NFL had a Friday night game during its opening weekend was in September 1970, when the Los Angeles Rams hosted the St. Louis Cardinals.
