SAO PAULO (AP) — The host of the first NFL game in Brazil, the soccer club Corinthians, is not a fan of the green dominated colour scheme its Friday night visitors, the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles. But many fans who arrived at the NeoQuimica Arena didn’t seem to mind.
Among them were some supporters of Corinthians, a club that has tried for decades to avoid any reference to the colour of its local rival Palmeiras.
In Sao Paulo, the excitement was palpable ahead of the second game of the 2024 NFL season and the league’s first visit to South America. Philadelphia and Green Bay both made the playoffs last season.
Packers fan and teacher Cody Armstrong, 32, spent much of his summer earnings to travel from Oakland, Calif., with three friends, including two Eagles fans. They were all dressed in green and waiting for their orders at a fast-food restaurant next to the stadium.
“Is it true that they don’t like green here?” asked Armstrong. “Well… then they’ll have to put up with us.”
Also dressed in green, the friends saw Kansas City’s season-opening win against Baltimore at a bar in Sao Paulo on Thursday night and were thrilled to see so many locals excited about American football. Marketing experts have estimated that there are 38 million fans of the sport in football-mad Brazil, and at least 42,000 were expected to fill the Corinthians Stadium.
Bruno Silva, 37, bought an unofficial black Eagles jersey sold in a subway station near the stadium for about 50 Brazilian reals ($10). A Corinthians fan, he said he was supporting Philadelphia – designated as the home team in Brazil – because it refused to wear green.
“This is our home,” said Silva, who began following the NFL five years ago. “We support whoever supports us.”
William Camargo, 39, also a Corinthians fan, appeared in a green Packers jersey, which many supporters of the football club would consider heresy.
“We like to say that Corinthians belongs to its fans. It’s the same with Green Bay,” Camargo said of the community-owned franchise.
He said he became a fan because of longtime Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, whose jersey was popular with fans at the stadium on Friday night.
Other fans wore jerseys from other NFL teams, including New England, San Francisco, Buffalo and Baltimore.
Russell Okung, who played for four teams in 11 NFL seasons, was one of the off-field attractions Friday night. He and other Brazilian practitioners of capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian martial art disguised as a dance, performed in front of applauding fans at various locations outside the stadium.
“I love Brazil,” Okung told reporters before one of his many capoeira performances. “I’m so happy the NFL made it here.”
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