The Green Bay Packers won’t be opening the 2024 NFL season at home in Titletown. They won’t even be doing it in the United States
The NFL has announced that the Packers will travel to São Paulo to face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1 in the NFL’s first game in Brazil. The Eagles had already been named as one of the participating teams; the Packers had reportedly been in contention with the Cleveland Browns for the other spot.
The game will take place Friday, Sept. 6, making it the first opening week NFL game to be broadcast on a Friday night in more than 50 years. The last Week 1 Friday night broadcast, according to the NFL, was Sept. 18, 1970, when the St. Louis Cardinals took on the Los Angeles Rams.
“We’re looking forward to being a part of this historic matchup against the Eagles in São Paulo,” said Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy via the team website. “We’re excited to play in front of our devoted fans in Brazil and help build upon the international popularity of the NFL and the Packers. We had a great experience playing internationally for the first time a couple of years ago, and we’re proud to be part of the league’s continued global growth.”
The Packers have played outside of the United States several times, though most have been preseason games. They’ve played two preseason games in Canada (1997 in Toronto, 2019 in Winnipeg), and one in Tokyo in 1998. They’ve played only one regular-season game on foreign soil: the 2022 contest against the New York Giants in London, which they lost 27-22.
There will be four other international games during the 2024 NFL season, though we only know the home teams for those contests. The Carolina Panthers will be the home team for a game played in Munich. The Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears will both be home teams for games in London, as will the Jacksonville Jaguars, who will be playing their 12th London game since 2013.
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