You know things are bad when a player from another league of Lebron James' stature goes to his social media to complain about the product on the field, and that's exactly what happened during the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles game in Brazil. His comments had nothing to do with the players or the game itself; instead, it was because of the horrid conditions of the makeshift NFL field at Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo.
Players on both sides were seen slipping throughout the game, and it occurred far too frequently in big moments. A would-be touchdown by Green Bay's Christian Watson failed to actually happen as he lost his footing in the back of the endzone. Both offensive and defensive linemen also were clearly going through it as they tried to gather their footing. Even a referee came up hurt presumably due to a fall. There were even multiple shots of Green Bay's equipment manager drilling in new spikes as they tried to figure out how to better serve their players.
All in all, it was a brutal showing in South America's first-ever NFL game when it came to the field conditions. The game was exhilarating as the Eagles held on to a 34-29 season-opening victory, but that doesn't take away from the sloppiness that resulted from the field.
Packers' Dontavion Wicks slips on a route during the NFL's Brazil game in which poor field conditions caused some issues.
The aforementioned post on X by Lebron simply said, "Man, this field sucks!!!" Veteran quarterback Chase Daniel added more thought on the subject, "That field is in horrible shape. Most international grass fields are super slippery but this is a safety issue for the players. Before every game, the player union reps for each team usually checks out the field... I'm surprised we didn't hear more about this." Former NFL center, Ryan Jensen, echoed similar thoughts about international games, "I see the NFL still hasn't figured out how to get a field ready for a game overseas. Ridiculous.
After the game, many of the players commented on the slippery field. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said in his press conference that it "was kind of rough to get traction" and that it was a challenge for all four quarters. His teammate, Lane Johnson, said the turf was "one of those fields where the top just came out pretty easy." Packers safety Xavier McKinney had a similar sentiment as he said there were times when was slipping.
I understand why the NFL is attempting to spread the game internationally. It's about the money. At some point, though, you have to put the product and its players first, and this is becoming a far too common occurrence with these international games.
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