Thousands of Brazilian fans of American football fulfilled a lifelong dream last Friday (6) by watching some of the biggest stars of the sport’s premier professional league in its first game held in South America.
The Brazil, where round ball football is king, hosted the first game of the NFL’s regular season between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers at Arena Corinthians in São Paulo.
It is estimated that around 45,000 people attended the game in the largest city in Latin America, in a match that marked another initiative by the NFL to continue expanding its global presence, after holding games in Great Britain, Mexico, and Germany in recent years.
The NFL stated that Brazil is establishing itself as a key market for the most popular professional sports league in the United States.
In June, fans quickly bought all available tickets. On Friday, they crowded into the stadium, proudly wearing jerseys of their favorite NFL teams, not necessarily the Eagles or Packers.
The game ended with the Eagles overcoming a disastrous first quarter, winning against the Green Bay Packers in a comeback, 34 to 29.
Trying to make space in the land of football
The NFL has had a relationship with Brazil that has lasted over 50 years. It all started in 1969 when TV Tupi first broadcast a game from the American league. The Brazilian TV network received recordings of football from the American CBS network for 18 months in hopes of developing a fan base during this time.
In 1988, TV Bandeirantes aired the Super Bowl live for the first time, and later other TV networks acquired the broadcasting rights for the league’s final. These broadcasts inspired the first