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Brazil will host the Philadelphia Eagles versus
the Green Bay Packers on Friday at the Corinthians Arena in Sao
Paulo, the first NFL game on the continent and the first Week
One game held on a Friday evening since 1970.
Eagles players have questioned security in the city, the largest
in the southern hemisphere.
"We had a meeting with a whole bunch of 'Don't Do's'. So I'm
just trying to go down there, win a football game and come back
home," wide receiver AJ Brown told reporters.
He said players were advised not to walk on the streets holding
cell phones.
"I do not want to go to Brazil. They already told us not to
leave the hotel. They told us we can't do too much, because the
crime rate is crazy," cornerback Darius Slay said in a podcast.
He later apologized "to anyone I offended" in an X post.
Sao Paulo state government said it would delegate specialized
civil and military police battalions to reinforce security
during the game and place police officers on streets, trains,
subway stations, hotels and tourist attractions.
"To guarantee the safety of the players, the military police
will reinforce the number of personnel upon arrival of the
delegations at the Guarulhos Airport and escort the teams to
their hotels, training sites and the stadium," it said in a
statement. Authorities will also carry out a sweep at the
stadium before the match.
Brazil in 2023 ranked 17th most dangerous country in the world
by murder rate, according to Statista data, below Latin American
peers such as Ecuador and Mexico - where NFL has held games
since 2005 with security concerns also voiced.
Sao Paulo state says the local homicide rate is four times lower
than the national average and compares to that of California,
while standing below Washington DC, for example.
(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, editing by Ed Osmond) [© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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