On the eve of his team’s 10-hour flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni couldn’t help but bask in the nostalgia of playing football on a Friday night.
While players have expressed concerns about playing in Sao Paulo, there’s no denying the history surrounding Friday’s season opener between the Eagles and Green Bay Packers. The event will not only mark the NFL’s first regular season game in South America, but its first Week 1 game on a Friday night since 1970.
Sirianni said he could feel the significance of the moment when addressing his team on Tuesday:
To say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a game Friday night. Like, that gives me goosebumps to think about that. … My favorite players growing up, because my dad was a coach, were the high school football players that played on Friday night, you know? John Briggs, my brother Jay Sirianni, Mike Sirianni, Pete Connelly — those were my favorite players growing up. ‘Friday night football,’ I was able to say that to these guys, and the excitement should be so high on every level. This is why we fell in love with this game.
The Eagles will be the “home team” Friday and plan to sport a slick new uniform combination, an ode to the black and white worn by the city’s home soccer club Corinthians. Quarterback Jalen Hurts recently called the team’s trip to Brazil a once in a lifetime opportunity, and Sirianni echoed those comments during Tuesday’s presser:
I’m so excited to be able to go to Brazil to play in front of very passionate fans. Obviously, super bummed that we don’t get to play in front of our passionate fans (at the Linc). I love our fans, the home-field advantage that we have. But I’m excited. This is my first international trip, and I’m excited and know how much they care about sports in Brazil. It’s Friday night football against the Green Bay Packers. You take me back to when those guys were my favorite players, and you said to me, ‘Hey, Friday night, September whatever, 2024, you’re going to be the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles (and I’m 10 years old) and you’re going to be playing against the Green Bay Packers. I mean, I would have been pretty pumped about that, and I’m still pumped about that.
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