Some Eagles players are not excited about starting the 2024 regular season in Brazil. Quarterback Tanner McKee is trying to reassure them that it won’t be as problematic as they fear.
“I think a lot of guys have questions about the safety and the culture,” McKee said Sunday, according to Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It’s easy for people to be scared about things they don’t know.
Brazil is a different country that many haven’t visited, and they speak a different language with a different culture. It’s normal to be cautious and prepared.
We do that for any game we go to. I’m just telling the guys that I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised by how nice the people are and the culture there.
“I would say no matter where you go, a football team probably shouldn’t walk around a big city with cash in their hand or things like that.”
Players like safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and cornerback Darius Slay have raised concerns about the NFL’s decision to send the Eagles to Brazil.
“Man, I do not want to go to Brazil,” Slay said on his podcast, according to Lane. “They already told us not to leave the hotel. . . . NFL, why do y’all want to send us somewhere where the crime rate is this high?”
Given what happened to 49ers receiver Ricky Pearsall on Saturday, it’s clear that many cities in the U.S. aren’t exactly ideal. Players who go anywhere other than (as NBA star LeBron James suggested after the Pearsall news) “home, work, and back home” are taking on some risk.
In Brazil, the NFL has taken on that risk for them. But if they stick to the hotel and stay with the team, they’ll be safe.
Just ask tackle Lane Johnson. “I’m just along for the ride,” he said, according to McLane. “It’s just part of the job. It is what it is.”
And that’s the reality. Philadelphia, San Francisco, or any other American city, and any country where the league decides to hold games.
For football players aiming to play at the highest level, there’s no other choice.
For Week 1, the only option for the Packers and Eagles is to play in Brazil.
