NFL INTERNATIONAL SERIES
Is it permitted to wear green at the Eagles vs Packers game in Brazil? Eagles announce new uniforms
The Philadelphia Eagles will wear new uniforms to their Week 1 game in Brazil against the Packers, but is that because of a “no green” rule at the stadium?
The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers head to São Paulo, Brazil to open their regular season in the NFL’s first-ever game in South America. It’s interesting that the NFL chose these two teams to play at Arena Corinthians, a stadium that’s home to a soccer team whose rival is Palmeiras, and here’s why.
The green ban in São Paulo’s Arena Corinthians stadium
The stadium where the Eagles and Packers are playing in São Paulo is home to the Brazilian soccer team Corinthians. Their rival, Palmeiras, wears the color green. The rivalry is so intense and the Corinthians fans so loyal that there is an informal ban on the color green for their players, and the fans just typically avoid wearing the color green in general.
This could be a problem for two NFL teams whose main color is...green. As the home team, the Eagles would be the one to wear green while the Packers would wear white.
Good thing the “ban” is informal and does not apply to the Eagles or Packers, who can wear whatever color they like. Still, the Eagles announced today that they’ll be debuting a brand new uniform, which just so happens to be black and white - definitely not green.
Is this a coincidence, or are the Eagles trying to be respectful of the Corinthians’ traditions? It’s not clear, but if it is a coincidence, it’s a nice one.
When the stadium was host to the 2016 Olympics and Nigeria’s soccer team played against Brazil’s, both teams chose to wear jerseys which had some green trim, but whose main colors were white and yellow, respectively.
As you can see, the Eagles jerseys do have some green trim as well, which is apparently acceptable. The Packers, on the other hand, are disregarding this “informal ban” altogether and will be wearing their green and yellow uniforms.
Although there is no actual rule that states a ban on the color green inside the stadium, it just seems like bad manners, or maybe even bad luck, to bring that much green into a stadium that despises the color so much. I guess we’ll see in one week if that is true or not. The game kicks off on Friday, September 6 at 8:15 p.m. ET (9:15 p.m. in São Paulo).