NFL
Brazil’s crucial role in NFL expansion: how many football fans are there in the South American country?
The Philadelphia Eagles face the Green Bay Packers in São Paulo, the first NFL game in history to be played in South America.
The NFL is becoming more and more international. Following the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory over the Baltimore Ravens in the opening game of the 2024 season on Thursday, the first game in South America in the league’s history will be played on Friday, as the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Green Bay Packers at the Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil.
The scheduling of the game is part of the NFL’s ever-growing quest to expand around the globe. Since 2000, 50 regular season games have taken place outside the United States, in London (36), Toronto (6), Mexico City (5), Frankfurt (3) and Munich (1).
After the U.S. and Mexico, statistics show Brazil is the country with the most football fans, making São Paulo a logical choice. As per the NFL itself, 35 million people (of a population of 203 million, according to a 2022 census) follow the league.
Eagles - Packers: the “Brazilian Super Bowl”
The importance of the NFL Sao Paulo Game is such that Luis Martinez, recently appointed as General Manager of the league in Brazil, considers it the country’s very own Super Bowl.
The plan, of course, is to put on the most spectacular of shows, both in terms of the on-field action between the Eagles and the Packers, and the off-field entertainment, which will be headlined by Anitta, the “Queen of Brazilian Pop”.
Eagles’ Mailata hopes to inspire kids worldwide
Additionally, Friday’s game will feature Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata, one of the International Player Pathway Program’s biggest success stories. The Australian signed a multimillion-dollar contract extension with Philadelphia in April this year and believes it’s important for the league to play more games outside of the United States, so that young people from all over the world can realise they too could end up playing in the NFL one day, regardless of where they were born.
“It’s a great honour to be able to represent the NFL, and to represent Philadelphia, on an international stage,” Mailata said ahead of the São Paulo game. “This is bigger and more important for players like me who come from different backgrounds, and for kids who have never seen the NFL before, to be able to try to have a career like me.”
Louis Rees-Zammit (Wales) of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Isaac Alarcón (Mexico) of the San Francisco 49ers and Bayron Matos (Dominic Republic) of the Miami Dolphins have also been part of the International Player Pathway Program and are set to be involved in the NFL this season.
Are there any Brazilian NFL players?
Despite huge Brazilian interest in the NFL, it took until 2014 for a player from the South American country to play in the league. Placekicker Cairo Santos, now of the Chicago Bears, started out with the Kansas City Chiefs and has also turned out for the Los Angeles Rams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans.
Durval Queiroz Neto was the first Brazilian player to come to feature in the International Player Pathway Program and was with the Miami Dolphins between 2019 and 2022, although he failed to make an NFL appearance, hampered by a position change, injuries and the covid-19 pandemic.
More international NFL games outside the USA from 2025
The internationalisation of the NFL has increased over the past decade, with more games outside the United States each year.
In December 2023, after the intention to play in Brazil was announced, team owners voted to increase the number of games outside of the USA to eight per season starting in 2025.
According to The Athletic, the league has shown interest in playing games in Barcelona, Spain, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, so more NFL expansion appears inevitable. In addition, it has been made clear on a number of occasions that football will return to Mexico for the first time since November 2022 as soon as the remodelling of the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City is completed.