Philadelphia Eagles players were loudly booed as they took the field in Brazil on Friday night following the controversy surrounding cornerback Darius Slay.
Slay was forced to apologize earlier this week after claiming he did not want to travel to Brazil to play the Eagles’ NFL International Series game against the Green Bay Packers amid fears over the country’s “high crime rate.”
He also criticized NFL bosses for sending the Eagles and Packers to the South American nation, before eventually backtracking and calling it a “beautiful country.”
Despite Slay’s apology, before their eventual 34-29 win over the Packers, fans inside Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians made their anger clear by booing Eagles players as they came out for pregame warmups.
Brazilian fans clearly did not forget his speech about his country, in which he added that he felt so uncomfortable with the situation that he told his family not to bother making the trip.
Philadelphia Eagles players were loudly booed as they entered the field in Brazil on Friday night.
“I told my family not to come because I wasn’t going to show up anywhere,” he admitted.
Slay says he plans to spend the entire trip in his hotel, a sentiment similar to that of Eagles wide receiver AJ Brown.
In an interview in August, Brown also indicated that he would be getting used to his hotel during the trip.
“We had a meeting yesterday with a lot of things not to do,” Brown said. “I’m just trying to go there, win a football game and come back here. (…)
He continued: “We are not there to see the city, it is not a holiday, it is a football match. (…) It is as simple as walking down the street with the phone in your hand… it is crazy.”
However, amid outrage over his comments about the country earlier this week, Slay took to X to issue an apology to Brazil.
Eagles cornerback Darius Slay recently said he did not want to travel to Brazil for their International Series game against the Green Bay Packers.
The Eagles face the Packers in the first NFL game on South American soil
“I want to apologize to everyone I’ve offended, I didn’t mean to,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to playing in your beautiful country and I’ve heard you’re very passionate, as are our amazing Eagles fans. It’s just a few days away, I can’t wait!”
The Eagles put aside pregame animosity to get off to the perfect start to the new NFL season after holding on for a hard-fought 34-29 victory over the Packers.
Saquon Barkley proved to be the hero in his long-awaited debut in Philadelphia, scoring three touchdowns to inspire his hometown team to victory.
It was the Eagles’ first departure since Jason Kelce, who enjoyed an iconic 13-year stint with the franchise, made the difficult decision to retire from football at the end of last season.
And after watching them take off in 2024, Kelce, 36, took to X to praise his former team and point out where they can improve to get to the next level.
Saquon Barkley inspired the Eagles to victory by scoring three touchdowns in his long-awaited debut with the team.
‘Eagles 1-0, great first game of the year against a very good Packers team,’ Kelce wrote.
“It was a sloppy game, but when they were running the man, they were killing it. There were a lot of good things in this game. They cleaned up some of the first-game jitters on O and stopped the explosives on D and we’re killing it, baby!”
In the final seconds of the game, Packers quarterback Jordan Love was forced off with a lower leg injury as his team headed toward an opening loss.
Kelce added with another post: ‘Hope Jordan Love is okay, love watching him play, was a little nervous about this, big win for the good guys.’