NFL Stadium Fans (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Everyone is calling for an NFL Week 1 fixture to be taken off the schedule.
The Kansas City Chiefs will kick the campaign off with a game against AFC Championship opponents, the Baltimore Ravens, this Thursday night. And fans are expecting it to be a good one.
As it happens, there will also be a football game on Friday, which is rare, as the Philadelphia Eagles are set to play the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. This will mark the first NFL game on Brazilian soil, but folks are now urging the league to pull out as the country has banned Elon Musk’s X/Twitter.
The decision has led to people writing Brazil off as a country that is against free speech, and the NFL is now being asked to stay away.
“I doubt the NFL would do it, but it would be a strong move to support freedom of speech by canceling next Friday’s game in Brazil over the banning of X in the country & playing Eagles-Packers back home in the US. US reporters, teams & players won’t be able to Tweet from Brazil,” Outkick’s Clay Travis wrote in a tweet.
“I don’t personally see free speech as a political issue. Everyone should be able to argue for anything they want whether I agree with it or not. (Not in uniform at work to forestall those Tweets.) But I doubt the NFL has the balls to do this.
“The NFL has made a ton of noise about the need to embrace “social justice” whatever that means. The number one most powerful social justice in any country is freedom of speech. Without it, no other freedoms exist.”
Everyone Agreed That The Eagles-Packers NFL Week 1 Fixture Should Be Taken Away From Brazil
Plenty of users agreed with Travis’s idea to have the NFL Week 1 game pulled from the South American country.
MLB banned an All Star Game in Atlanta over bogus Civil rights arguments. This is much bigger. And true.
— Diet Coke Trad (@bewicksong) August 30, 2024
NFL tolerated and supported people kneeling for the anthem, no chance they do anything like this (but it would be great)
— Michael Cassidy ✝️ 🇺🇸 (@MichaelCassidy) August 30, 2024
it would also be a good thing if viewers did NOT watch it if they remain in Brazil.
— Rani, Last of The Red Hot Boomers (@ShadesOfRani) August 30, 2024
Agreed, but no way they would do that
— John W Snyder (@johnwsnyder) August 30, 2024
NFL still showcases Wokeness! Would be so manly of them but I doubt they have the cojones to do this!
— Veronica Live 🎙️🇺🇸 (@VeronicaTalk) August 30, 2024
The NFL is unlikely to pull the game out of Brazil given that it comes so soon, plus there would probably be some legal hoops to jump through to do so.
However, it wouldn’t be a first. As one fan pointed out, the MLB pulled an All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of its voting laws.
While many fans would love to see the game played elsewhere, they don’t actually expect it to.
