For the first time in NFL history, the league will be holding a regular-season game in Brazil and although we know the home team for the game, we still don't know who the visiting team will be.
Back in February, the NFL announced that the Philadelphia Eagles would be 'hosting' the Week 1 game in São Paulo, but the league didn't announce who they'd be playing. There are nine teams on Philadelphia's home schedule and it could be any one of them.
One of those teams on Philly's schedule is Cleveland and one Browns player raised some eyebrows on Monday when he mentioned that his team would be playing in Brazil against the Eagles to start the season. During an interview on "Cleveland Browns Daily" that was streamed on the team's official YouTube account, Maurice Hurst made it sound like it was a done deal that the Browns would be playing.
"I mean, we're playing in Brazil this year," Hurst said in the interview.
If Hurst is correct, that's major news, but a few hours after the interview aired, the Browns defensive tackle backtracked on his comment.
"I have [zero] confirmation that we'll be playing in Brazil, just excited at the possibility of being one of the first teams to do so! Would be happy lining up with this team anywhere," Hurst wrote on social media.
At this point, there are only two options: Hurst knows nothing and he made the comment on accident or he knows something and he decided to backtrack.
Either way, his initial comment might end up being right. When you look at the Eagles' home schedule, the Browns are the one team that makes sense for the Brazil game.
The Eagles play the Giants, Cowboys, Commanders, Panthers, Falcons, Packers, Steelers, Browns and Jaguars in Philadelphia this year. The Jags and Panthers are already scheduled to play an international game in 2024, so it seems unlikely they'd be sent. Also, the NFL hasn't scheduled a divisional international game since 2019, so that could take all of the NFC East teams off the table, which leaves us with four options: Falcons, Packers, Steelers, Browns.
Out of those four, the Falcons went to London last year, so it's unlikely they'd get the nod. The Packers went to London in 2022 for their first international game ever and they might not want to leave the country again so quickly. As for the Steelers, the Eagles will likely do their best to keep that game in Philadelphia since they only get to host their in-state rivals once every eight years.
That leaves the Browns.
It will likely be another few weeks before the NFL announces who the Eagles will be playing, but we do know that the game will be played in Week 1 and it will mark the first time in 54 years that the NFL has scheduled a Friday matchup during the opening week of the season.
