When the Philadelphia Eagles play host - in Brazil - to the Green Bay Packers on Friday Night Football, there's going to be one interesting thing going on behind the scenes that is quite unusual. Due to the game being held in the South American country, all of those live tweets we've become so accustomed to seeing (sometimes even showing up in our feeds before it does our screens) won't be as live.
The reason for that is that reporters won't be able to tweet in Brazil. Instead, they'll be outsourcing to anyone who can, which for a lot of the writers, will be their spouses. The Athletic's Diana Russini confirmed this, as have other media members, joking that, "The wives of the Philadelphia Eagles reporters tweeting for them back in Philly/NJ because their husbands aren't allowed to tweet in Brazil may be my favorite sidebar story of the week."
Photo by David Berding/Getty Images
Brazil suspended the usage of X, formerly Twitter, last weekend. The country's Supreme Court upheld the ban, which means that no one in the country, even those visiting from other countries, will be able to access the site. Like anything, there are probably ways to tinker with the VPN, but unless you're going to jump through all of those hoops, X isn't available in Brazil.
That's why the tweets coming from Brazil aren't being posted there. It sounds like spouses will be playing a major part in the coverage for the league's first-ever game in South America. Philadelphia local radio 94.1 WIP also confirmed that they're receiving texts from their beat writer and tweeting them out on his account.
Zach Berman, who covers the team for PHLY, is another who has confirmed this. His wife shared on his account that she is running it while he's overseas.
Btw, we're controlling Zach's twitter account while he's in Brazil. He might miss twitter more than he misses us! pic.twitter.com/xX5vIS5PEM
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) September 4, 2024
So far, the Brazil game has come with quite a bit of headaches. From the long flight to the hotel situations, and the dangers that come with being in the city, it all has resulted in a less-than-positive experience thus far.
Soon enough, the game will get underway and all of the background noise will become a moot point. The Eagles and Packers will face off on Peacock in a game that is set to pit two of the NFC's top teams against one another.
Related: The NFL Season is Here and So is the New Kickoff Rule
