The 2024 NFL season begins on Thursday when the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs kick off the campaign by hosting the Baltimore Ravens. But the next day is when history will be made, as the NFL will venture to South America for the first time.
São Paulo will host the first NFL game to ever take place in Brazil, with the Green Bay Packers to take on the Philadelphia Eagles. The game will take place at Corinthians Arena, also known as Neo Química Arena, which previously hosted events for both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The NFL Brazil Game will mark the second international game for both the Eagles and Packers, with Philadelphia winning previously in London, while Green Bay lost in England’s capital.
The Eagles are coming off an 11–6 season, with the Packers finishing 9–8 last season. But those records only tell part of the story. Philadelphia had a free fall to the finish line, going 1–5 over its last six games before getting embarrassed with a 23-point defeat in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, despite being favored over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Meanwhile, Green Bay surged to the finish line, going 6–2 over its last eight games of the regular season before pulling off a road playoff upset versus the Dallas Cowboys on Wild Card Weekend.
The Packers became the youngest team since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to win a playoff game, and they would then bow out the following week to the eventual NFC champion San Francisco 49ers.
Both franchises have also had considerable recent success in season openers, as the Eagles are 11–2 over their last 13 Week 1 contests, while the Packers are 7–2 over their last nine Week 1 matchups. Their personnel also have similarities as each is led by a quarterback from the 2020 NFL Draft class in Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love. Additionally, each squad made free agent additions in the backfield, with two-time Pro Bowler Saquon Barkley joining Philly, while 2022 rushing champ Josh Jacobs signed with the Pack.
The NFL Brazil Game is the latest in the international game for the league as it continues to span the globe. Brazil will become the fifth country outside of the United States to host a regular season game, and the first in the Southern Hemisphere.
The United Kingdom has hosted 36 games—all taking place in London, while Canada has hosted six contests, with the Buffalo Bills taking part in all of those in Toronto.
Mexico City, Mexico has hosted five regular-season matchups, with Germany (four) the only foreign country to host games in multiple cities, as Frankfurt has played host to a pair of games, with Munich hosting one game.
During the 2024 NFL schedule, the NFL Brazil Game is the first of five international contests. London will host games on three Sundays in a row from Week 5 to Week 7, and then Munich will host its second-ever game in Week 10.
The league has already announced that Madrid, Spain, will host a regular season game during the 2025 season, which will make it the sixth country outside of the United States to host a regular-season NFL game. The participating teams, as well as the exact date of the game, will be announced at a later date.
Outside of these regular season contests, the league has made its imprint in several other countries with exhibition and preseason games. The last of those outside of the aforementioned countries took place in Tokyo, Japan, in 2005. The country has hosted 13 total preseason NFL games, making it the second-most popular foreign destination for the league outside of London. Barcelona, Spain (two) is the only other location that has been the site of multiple international preseason games, with the last of those taking place in 1994.
Sydney, Australia, hosted one game in 1999; Dublin, Ireland, hosted a game in 1997; and Gothenburg, Sweden, played host to a single contest in 1988. All of those were preseason contests. So, counting both regular season and preseason games, Brazil will be the 10th host country outside of the United States.
South America will become the third continent to host a regular season game, joining North America and Europe. With preseason games having previously taken place in Australia and Asia, those continents naturally enter the conversation as ones that could possibly host regular season games.
“Nothing imminent in terms of going to Asia or Australia, but that’s something that we continue to consider because there are clearly great stadiums, great partners there,” O’Reilly said. “The travel is a factor, and that will be something we continue to look at. But there are real opportunities in real parts of the world that are important to reach with our game, and we will look to continue to do that and explore that operationally.”
