PACK YOUR BAGS!

Touchdown in Brazil: 2024 regular-season game marks international milestone

Touchdown in Brazil: 2024 regular-season game marks international milestone
The NFL is coming to Brazil. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.

The NFL will play a regular-season game in Brazil in 2024, the first in South America in the latest expansion of the league's rapidly growing international plan.

The league said Wednesday at the owners meetings in the Dallas area the game will be played at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The stadium has a capacity of nearly 50,000 and was a venue for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

The NFL played its first two regular-season games in Frankfurt, Germany, this year, with three more in London. There are five planned for 2024 as well, three in London to go with games in Germany and Brazil.

At the December owners meetings two years ago, the league designated home marketing rights for teams in various countries as part of a strategy to build fan growth internationally. Miami is the only team with such rights in Brazil.

“Bringing the NFL to new continents, countries and cities around the world is a critical element of our plan to continue to grow the game globally,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

Sao Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes led the Brazilian contingent that made a presentation to owners, and smiled widely as he held a football during a news conference.

“The right choice was made,” Nunes said through a translator.

The NFL also will expand to up to eight international games starting in 2025, with Spain and a return to Mexico among the possibilities.

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

ESPN Houston 97.5 FM
Jake Meyers is the latest Astro to be rushed back from injury too soon. Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images.

Houston center fielder Jake Meyers was removed from Wednesday night’s game against Cleveland during pregame warmups because of right calf tightness.

Meyers, who had missed the last two games with a right calf injury, jogged onto the field before the game but soon summoned the training staff, who joined him on the field to tend to him. He remained on the field on one knee as manager Joe Espada joined the group. After a couple minutes, Meyers got up and was helped off the field and to the tunnel in right field by a trainer.

Mauricio Dubón moved from shortstop to center field and Zack Short entered the game to replace Dubón at shortstop.

Meyers is batting .308 with three homers and 21 RBIs this season.

After the game, Meyers met with the media and spoke about the injury. Meyers declined to answer when asked if the latest injury feels worse than the one he sustained Sunday. Wow, that is not a good sign.

 

Lack of imaging strikes again!

The Athletic's Chandler Rome reported on Thursday that the Astros didn't do any imaging on Meyers after the initial injury. You can't make this stuff up. This is exactly the kind of thing that has the Astros return-to-play policy under constant scrutiny.

The All-Star break is right around the corner, why take the risk in playing Meyers after missing just two games with calf discomfort? The guy literally fell to the ground running out to his position before the game started. The people that make these risk vs. reward assessments clearly are making some serious mistakes.

The question remains: will the Astros finally do something about it?


SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome