NFL: 'No Concerns' Over Rio Field for Cowboys-Ravens — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Nick Pappas, the NFL's field director, told ESPN there are 'no concerns right now' about conditions at Maracanã Stadium for Sunday's Cowboys-Ravens game in Rio de Janeiro.
- Pappas cited 'a significant amount of rainfall, a record kind of rainfall over the last six weeks' as a management challenge but said the league is 'capable of managing' the mid-season grass surface.
- Flamengo goalkeeper Agustin Rossi complained last week that the Maracanã field has 'bumps everywhere,' saying it is 'unbelievable that we're playing on a field like this' ahead of the NFL's international-break visit.
- Asked whether the league had discussed relocating the game, Pappas said flatly, 'No, that's not a conversation.'
- Sunday's matchup is the NFL's third game in Brazil but first in Rio; in the 2024 Eagles-Packers game at São Paulo's Corinthians Arena, multiple players lost their footing on a slick surface.
- The most extreme precedent came in 2018, when the NFL moved the Chiefs-Rams game from Mexico City's Estadio Azteca to the LA Memorial Coliseum because of poor field conditions there.
- Both Ravens coach Jesse Minter and Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer deferred to the league on field readiness; both teams fly in Thursday night and practice in Brazil on Friday.
Why it matters: The league's 'no concerns' stance runs against recent memory: a 2018 Azteca relocation and 2024 São Paulo slipping incidents, plus a Flamengo goalkeeper publicly calling the Maracanã surface 'unbelievable' with 'bumps everywhere.' With two teams arriving Thursday and practicing Friday, any condition reversal could force a costly late decision affecting both clubs' Week 2 preparation.
Ask SkimNews
