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The NFL’s never ending quest for the dollar trumps fan convenience and player safety again as our Green Bay Packers have traveled 10 hours to Brazil to begin the season against the ‘home’ Philadelphia Eagles in front of a crowd of 45,000 rabid soccer fans.

Moreover, the NFL has now joined the NCAA in spoiling high schools’ traditional Friday Night Lights exclusivity. Nevertheless, we bleed green and gold and this is going to be a special season.

Packers.com previewed the run up to tonight’s game. Here are some excerpts:

5 takeaways from Packers’ practice in Brazil

Green Bay conducted a high-pace walkthrough on Thursday, with Head Coach Matt LaFleur, quarterback Jordan Love and select Packers players addressing the media before and after practice.

Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s activities:

1. Packers are ready to make history in Brazil’s “Super Bowl.”

Green Bay is fully embracing the opportunity to play the first NFL game in South America, which is now the fifth continent to host an NFL preseason or regular-season game.LaFleur even opened his 14-minute news conference with a hearty “Bom dia,” which means “Good morning” in Portuguese.”We’re really excited to be down here in Brazil,” LaFleur said. “Your country has been great to us. The people have been fantastic. We’re looking forward to making history here and really looking forward to playing the Philadelphia Eagles to start off the 2024 season.”LaFleur said the Packers’ experience so far has been “nothing but positive,” lauding the fans, hotel, food and organization. The only real obstacle was the 10-hour flight from Green Bay to Sao Paulo. Even then, LaFleur said the plane ride was smooth, with spacious pods to accommodate most of the players…

2. Thursday’s practice was a medley of a usual Friday and Saturday workout.

The Packers picked up the pace, leading to a bit more high-intensity practice than a typical walkthrough before gameday.LaFleur compared it to a combination of the Friday and Saturday routine the team goes through before a traditional Sunday game. The Packers incorporated small team and individual periods to “shake the long trip out.”…

3. Friday’s matchup features two of the NFL’s best running backs making their debut with new teams.

Both the Packers and Eagles made splash moves in the backfield this offseason with the signings of Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley, respectively, in unrestricted free agency.The two running backs have combined for four Pro Bowls and more than 10,000 rushing yards and 90 touchdowns scored. Jacobs was the NFL’s rushing champion with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022 and Barkley won NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year with the New York Giants in 2018…

4. Packers’ trip to Brazil was a total team effort.

The organization invested a lot of time and effort into preparation for the trip to Sao Paulo, which LaFleur believes was integral to how smoothly everything has gone this week.

For that, LaFleur credits director of football logistics and team travel Matt Klein, director of nutrition Adam Korzun, vice president of player health and performance Bryan “Flea” Engel, along with the rest of the Packers’ advance team.Many of those individuals, along with the equipment staff, will help catch the team up to speed when it finally travels to Arena Corinthians on Friday.”The setup was outstanding,” LaFleur said. “It went as good as I could’ve ever hoped for or expected it to go.”…

5. Green Bay hopes to have the home-field advantage.

Philadelphia is technically the home team, but Green Bay is counting on a strong turnout from Brazilian Packers fans.”Everybody’s been A-plus,” LaFleur said. “Hopefully, all our Brazilian fans will show up tomorrow and be cheering on the green and gold. Hopefully, it’s a home-field advantage for us.”