From Rio to the Ravens and De Janeiro to Dallas, the NFL is back in Brazil for a third season. By now the league has discovered that a permit to party knows no meaning of expiration in the carnival epicentre of the world, for New York has met its sleepless match, and so too aspiring-come-rivalling NFL host cities across the globe. A footballing bloco that has spent the last two years step-ball-changing in Sao Paulo this week reaches the sandy collars of Rio, where the iconic Maracana Stadium will host Lamar Jackson's Ravens and Dak Prescott's Cowboys in its first-ever NFL regular-season matchup.
"Brazil is an amazing, amazing, amazing country, and the territory, the Brazilians, these vibrant, unique opportunities with food, carnival samba and experiences that are super unique in Brazil I would recommend everyone to live them at least once," NFL Brazil general manager Luis Martinez tells Sky Sports. Soccer reigns as the unconquerable sporting religion to Rio. Where murals of Neymar and Vinicius Jr dress up the walls of favelas, where children welcome tourists to play football in FIFA Street-style courts.
Ronaldinho and Ronaldo shirts line the walkways of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, on the sandy canvas of which locals commonly deliver a masterclass in keepy-ups. On any given gameday football is watched on television in barbers, coffee shops, restaurants, beachfront bars, convenience stores and, in this writer's case, the digital screen of my Argentina-despising Uber driver. But the belief is that footballing obsession breeds sporting obsession.
"Yes it is a soccer-dominated market, we all know. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the only conversation is going to be soccer, but they are super open, and the fans we have for the NFL, they have really proven that," Martinez says. "We have vibrant colours to explode that are amazing and very different than the way we have been doing things at theNFL and international.
Food and samba, dance, caipirinhas, cantores, it's so unique. "We have so many iconic elements, Christ the Redeemer, Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), Copacabana, Ipanema, it's super diverse for the creative elements." Rio features among a record slate of nine international games and as one of three new territories alongside Paris and Melbourne, the latter of which just played stage to the San Francisco 49ers against the Los Angeles Rams in front of 100,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The NFL made its debut in Brazil, as well as South America, in September 2024 when the Green Bay Packers faced the Philadelphia Eagles at Sao Paulo's Corinthians Arena in the opening week of the season.
It returned to the same venue the following year when the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, before the league announced a multi-year commitment to playing a minimum of three regular-season games over five years in Rio. "Rio and Sao Paulo, completely different," said Martinez. "One is super, I could say, corporate and industrial, and the other one is chill and vibes.
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