Eagles

The “Brazil is Dangerous” Story is Being Blown Out of Proportion

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 4th, 2024 · 12:21 PM EDT

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One of the things you’ve seen a lot of this week is some version of “Brazil is dangerous, the NFL shouldn’t send the Eagles and Packers down there.”

The genesis of the opinion, at least here in Philadelphia, is quotes from Eagles players like A.J. Brown and Darius Slay, who mentioned that they were given a list of things not to do while in Sao Paulo.

Said Brown: “We had a meeting, and there were a whole bunch of ‘Don’t Do’s, so I’m just trying to go down there and win a football game, and come back home … but after hearing all this stuff, I’m probably going to be in my room… Things that we would normally do here, even something as simple as walking down the street with your phone in your hand, and stuff like that, which is kind of crazy, so it’s alright.”

And then Slay actually apologized after questioning the NFL’s decision making and saying he did not want to go to Brazil:

I want to apologize to anyone I offended, that wasn’t my intention. I’m
Looking forward to playing in your beautiful country and i’ve heard yall are very passionate just like our amazing Eagles fan. Just a few more days, can’t wait!!!! #FlyEaglesFly

— Darius Slay (@bigplay24slay) September 4, 2024

This is being overblown because the advice the Eagles and Packers are being given is advice you would receive ahead of any trip anywhere, even inside the United States. What are the guidelines again? Don’t wave your phone around? Don’t wear fancy jewelry? Keep to public areas? Don’t attract attention to yourself? You would be warned about all of those things whether you were traveling to Sao Paulo, or Paris, or dropping off your freshman at Temple University. In the corporate world they use the term “best practice,” and what the Eagles were told is essentially “best practice” for foreign travel, perhaps amplified in a “scared straight” type of way to get them to focus on the game and not do anything stupid ahead of a critical Week 1 matchup against a fellow playoff contender.

What’s more is the tinge of hypocrisy in some of the things you read online and see on the news. Consider the shit that happens here on a regular basis, like, for instance, a 2024 draft pick being shot in an attempted robbery in downtown San Francisco. Ricky Pearsall wasn’t accosted by Sao Paulo street gangs or kidnapped and driven to the favela for extortion, he was shot outside of a Dolce and Gabbana store in the middle of a popular shopping area by a 17-year-old kid. If we reverse this now, and have Corinthians play Palmeiras in the United States, would Brazilian soccer officials warn players to stay in their rooms because they might get assaulted in broad daylight on American streets? And would we rail against that, and say that America is safe and that they have nothing to worry about? Those are mostly rhetorical questions, but think about travel abroad from Philadelphia. What percentage of locals would you say have been to Brazil? Two percent? Three percent? How many have been to South America or left the country at all? We don’t have any lived experience in Brazil, so all we can do is look up pickpocketing statistics and read news stories and listen to what other people tell us. It’s the same thing for the hundreds of millions of people who have never been to the United States but see school shootings on their television with regularity. Therefore, when popular athletes share quotes like Brown and Slay, fair or not, they will most definitely add fuel to the narrative fire.

Here’s another rhetorical question –

How many people who think Brazil is unsafe also think Philadelphia is unsafe? Think about that in a Venn Diagram when exploring this story.

Anyway, the one thing that’s counterintuitive is that if you’re trying to grow the game in another country, but telling players to remain in the hotel, then what’s the point? Obviously you’re not doing any fan-first activations. No appearances, no signings, no Jalen Hurts at the Nike store or whatever. It’s a brand-building trip with no brand building. How much does the NFL product or Eagles or Packers brand grow when you’re essentially just camping out in a hotel room, playing a game, then getting back on the plane? That’s what makes this so goofy. Rob Thomson showing up at the Philadelphia bar in London leaves an indelible mark, but if Sao Paulo has a cheesesteak joint, I guess the Birds aren’t gonna be there. Seems illogical, but what do we know? The most exotic place we’ve traveled to in recent years is Sea Isle City.