The Green Bay Packers are officially headed for Brazil, and now, they just have to figure out how to get there. Getting to a road game isn't usually a complicated process for an NFL team, but it could be for the Packers when they make their trip down to São Paulo for their 2024 season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Packers concern is that they likely won't be able to fly directly to South America, which means they'll either have to schedule a layover somewhere or they'll have to take the nearly two-hour bus ride to Milwaukee to fly out of the airport there.
Packers president Mark Murphy outlined the concern during an interview at the NFL's annual league meeting on March 26 (The Packers hadn't been chosen for the game yet, but they were considered a finalist at that point).
"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," Murphy said. "There's some thought that we might have to bus to Milwaukee and then fly, just some of those things."
When the Packers flew to London in 2022, they were able to take off from Green Bay for the 3,830-mile flight, but for São Paulo, the team will be traveling nearly 5,400 miles, which means the Packers will likely need a bigger plane and as Murphy notes, the airport in Green Bay isn't equipped to handle larger planes.
If the Packers have to bus to Milwaukee, that would take about two hours and if you add that to the roughly 10.5-hour flight, that would put their travel time at nearly 13 hours. As for the Eagles, they'll easily be able to fly from Philadelphia and their flight will only take about 9.5 hours.
"Philadelphia will just hop on a plane and go down (there)," Murphy said on April 9, via Madison.com.
As things stand today, the Packers are still trying to figure out how they're going to get to South America.
"We're not sure exactly what we'll have to do to get to Brazil," Murphy said.
There's a good chance that the Eagles don't feel sorry for the Packers at all. Philadelphia is giving up a home game to play in Brazil, so the fact that the Packers might have to deal with a few travel issues adds an element of home-field advantage that the Eagles are otherwise losing.
Although Murphy isn't thrilled with the travel situation, he is thrilled that the Packers are playing in such a huge game for the NFL.
"We're looking forward to being a part of this historic matchup against the Eagles in São Paulo," Murphy said on Wednesday after the game was officially announced. "We're excited to play in front of our devoted fans in Brazil and help build upon the international popularity of the NFL and the Packers. We had a great experience playing internationally for the first time a couple of years ago and we're proud to be part of the league's continued global growth."
The Week 1 matchup, which will be the NFL's first-ever regular-season game in Brazil, will kick off on Friday, Sept. 6 and it will be streaming exclusively on Peacock. It's the NFL's first Friday game in Week 1 since 1970.
