The Eagles have departed for Sao Paulo, Brazil. Amid reports of players having safety concerns, the South American city has tightened security ahead of the first NFL game in the region, ESPN reports.
The largest country in Latin America, Brazil, will host the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers on Friday at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo. This will be the first NFL game held on a Friday evening since 1970.
As the All-Pro said earlier in the week, A.J. Brown had previously made it clear that he was staying in his room.
“We had a meeting with a whole bunch of ‘don’t do’s.’ So, I’m just trying to go down there, win a football game and come back home.”
Eagles star cornerback Darius Slay had the loudest and most profound gripe about the trip.
“Week 1, I’m looking forward to it, I can’t wait,” Darius Slay Jr. said recently on his “Big Play Slay” podcast. “But man, I do not want to go to Brazil, you want to know why? I’m here to tell you why. They already told us not to leave the hotel. They told us we can’t do too much going on because the crime rate is crazy.
“… I’m like, NFL why y’all wanna send us somewhere where the crime rate is this high and we out the country? You know, the first thing people are thinking is like some terror could possibly happen. I told my family do not come down there because I’m not going to be nowhere to be found. I’m going to be in the hotel chilling, minding my business, playing my game after a long 9½-hour flight.”
According to Adam Schefter, the Sao Paulo state government will delegate specialized civil and military police battalions to reinforce security during the game and deploy police officers on streets, trains, subway stations, hotels, and tourist attractions.
“To guarantee the safety of the players, the military police will reinforce the number of personnel upon arrival of the delegations at the Guarulhos Airport and escort the teams to their hotels, training sites and the stadium,” it said in a statement. Authorities will also carry out a sweep at the stadium before the games.
Both the Eagles and Packers departed for Brazil on Wednesday.
