The NFL’s second game of the 2024 season, a potential playoff preview between the Packers and Eagles, had some interesting rumors swirling around it over the league’s offseason.
Green Bay and Philadelphia — a pair of 2023 playoff squads — are meeting in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to begin their seasons.
Rumors sparked over the past few months about whether the two teams would be allowed to wear green in Corinthians Arena, which will host the matchup. For two teams heavily reliant on green in their color schemes, it became a hot topic, and each team later released their planned Week 1 uniform ahead of the game.
The Sporting News has you covered on if the Eagles and Packers are allowed to wear green in Brazil, and where those rumors came from.
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Can the Eagles and Packers wear green in Brazil?
The Eagles and Packers — and all fans — are allowed to wear green in Brazil.
After debate on the topic ensued over the offseason, the NFL denied that the teams wouldn’t be allowed to wear the color, also denying that the teams would be restricted to their hotels and travel to the game in armored vehicles, per Front Office Sports.
“One of the host stadium’s rival soccer clubs wears green, but the league did not say players could not wear green. That is false,” NFL chief spokesman Brian McCarthy told Front Office Sports.
The same goes for fans. Anybody can wear green to the Week 1 matchup, despite the rumors that went around.
The Packers confirmed they'd be wearing green a week prior to the Friday night matchup.
The Eagles, on the other hand, did the opposite. Even with dark green being such a dominant color in Philadelphia's uniform scheme, the team opted to go with a black-and-white look. Only the Eagles' jersey numbers in Brazil will feature a touch of green.
The Eagles could just be pandering toward what will be the home crowd in Brazil, as the Corinthians soccer team wears black often. Or, it could have something to do with the anti-green narrative which wasn't made up, although it was denied as a factor in the game by the NFL. The chatter around the color grew from a variety of sources after the game was announced.
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Where did the 'can't wear green rumor' for NFL's Brazil game start?
In April, the NFL announced the Friday night Brazil matchup between the Packers and Eagles, continuing its international series in foreign cities like Munich and London.
Soon after, many made the realization that Corinthians Arena seems to have an informal ban on the color green. The aforementioned arena’s home soccer team, Corinthians, has a rival, Palmeiras, that wears green.
Per The Daily Mail, in the past, there have been signs around the stadium banning green for fans and players because of that heated rivalry, and one of Corinthians’ former players even said he was fined by the team for wearing green cleats.
With a pair of green-jersey teams playing in Friday’s game, that became a significant topic surrounding the matchup.
Only furthering those concerns, new Packers RB Josh Jacobs appeared on the “Green Light by Chris Long” podcast in June and suggested that he heard it wouldn’t be safe for the teams to wear green, and that it “had something to do with the gangs and stuff,” per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Jacobs later apologized for the message, saying he was “misinformed.”
Opposing teams have worn green in Corinthians Arena before, especially in unique circumstances. For example, during the 2016 Rio Olympics, Nigeria wore green uniforms.
Surely, for the first NFL game in Brazil, an exception to the usual “no-green” rule will also be made — and the league has confirmed that it won’t be an issue, even with the Eagles avoiding the color in their uniforms.
So, the short answer: Yes, the Eagles and Packers, and NFL fans, can wear green during Friday night’s Brazil matchup.