The Eagles have drawn, along with the Packers, the short straw for a long trip to Brazil, where both teams will open their respective seasons on Friday night. On Sunday, coach Nick Sirianni was asked to address questions and complaints about the trip, from players like safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and cornerback Darius Slay.
“We’re going there to play and win a football game,” Sirianni told reporters. “That’s our goal. That’s our only goal as we go down there. And so, it’s just getting everybody in the right mindset of what you need to be when you go down there. You can control the things that you can control. Like, we’re going to Brazil to play. That’s what it is. We’re excited about that.”
Are they, though?
“We’re excited about the opportunity to play in a neutral site and have a slightly different schedule of things that happen.” Sirianni said.
Are they, though?
“Like you have a big bye, like a mini bye, coming off of it. So, there are a lot of positives in it. It’s also to spread the game to a new country, which is exciting,” Sirianni said.
Is it, though? I mean, it’s exciting for the owners to export the NFL to other countries. But are his players truly excited about starting their season by being the ambassadors of American football in South America? Especially with a nationwide ban on Twitter/X?
“I think that is the main thing that we’re all saying,” Sirianni said. “We’ll control the things we need to control. Just like when a game rains, the team that handles the rain and looks at the rain as a -- that they’re ready for it, is going to be able to play better in the rain.
“Same thing in a neutral site, whether it’s in London, wherever it is. It will be good for us. It’s going to be good for us to go play in a neutral site and handle the different things that pop up in the NFL. You play on a short week. Oh, this game got changed to that game. These are things you can’t control. What we can control is our effort, we can control our attitude, we can control our core values, and we’re going to focus on that this week.”
It sounds good, but it might be a hard sell to the locker room. No one else is starting the season so far from home. And their reward for returning from Brazil with a win (or a loss) will be simple and clear — get back to work.
The good news is that, unlike the Packers, the Eagles get an extra day until their next game. Green Bay plays on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET; the Eagles face the Falcons on Monday night.