The NFL has announced which teams will play in its first visit to Brazil, and the fans in Sao Paulo are getting a good one. Two playoff teams from 2023, the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles, will make the trip to South America for Week 1.
In case you don’t want to wait until we have the NFL Draft, mini-camps, training camps, and preseason football, you can wager on the game right now. The Eagles, five months before the game kicks off, are 1.5-point favorites and paying -118 on the moneyline.
The battle between Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love is expected to see some offense, with the over/under at 51.5. Last season, the Packers only had one totals line higher than 51.5, and they hit the over that week. The Eagles had one game with a higher over/under, and they went under against the Miami Dolphins.
Flying to Brazil an Issue for Green Bay
The Packers have said they are pleased to have the NFL choose them for such a high profile game, but… the travel. Green Bay has a smaller airport than the rest of the NFL, and the flight to Brazil is 5,400 miles, and it requires a bigger plane.
The runways in Green Bay can only handle so much, which makes a two-hour bus ride to Milwaukee the likely first leg of their travel.
“The one issue with Green Bay is the size of our airport and the size of our runway, and we want to make sure that we’re not at a competitive disadvantage in terms of how long it’s going to take us to get to Brazil,” said Packers president Mark Murphy.
“Philadelphia will just have to hop on a place and go down (there).”
This is an Eagles home game, and normally they wouldn’t have to hop on a plane at all. The visiting team still would. Travel times and distances always differ from week-to-week, especially when it comes to the International Series.
The extra two hours on a bus to the Milwaukee airport before the first game of the season is nothing more than a nominal annoyance.
NFL Playing Six Days of Week
As the most popular sport in America, the NFL continues to spread its wings. It is no longer a sport for Sunday, with one game on Monday night. In 2024, the season begins on Thursday, the game in Brazil will be on Friday, and there will be games this year on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. The Wednesday games will be Christmas Day. Last year’s Christmas games were such a success that the NFL wants more. What used to belong to the NBA is no longer theirs alone.
The only day of the week that won’t have an NFL game this season is Tuesday.
Packers-Eagles Season Betting
The Packers-Eagles game is the only one on the schedule, and it’s the only one you can bet on at the moment. But there are a series of future and prop bets that have had odds for weeks.
The San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions are the favorites to win the NFC, but the Eagles are just behind them at +700. The Packers are just behind them at +850.
In 2024 MVP betting, Hurts is paying +1500. Love actually has shorter odds, coming in at +1200. New Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is among the favorites for Offensive Player of the Year, paying +1600. Packers coach Matt LaFleur is currently the second-betting favorite to win NFL Coach of the Year.
With over 25 years of experience as a distinguished sports writer for renowned platforms such as Fox Sports and ESPN, Kyle Garlett is a sports betting specialist who has been at the forefront of documenting the global surge in sports betting and online gaming. Based in Denver, Colorado, Kyle hosts an NFL betting YouTube show and podcast. Kyle also has two sports books published by HarperCollins.
Kyle graduated the Azusa Pacific University in 1996 with a B.A. Degree in Communication and Journalism.
