The Eagles open the 2024 campaign in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in what will be the NFL’s first game in South America.
It’s the second regular season international game for the Birds, who took out the Jaguars in London back in 2018, getting 6.8 yards per carry from Josh Adams and a 36-yard touchdown pass from Carson Wentz to Wendell Smallwood. Jordan Matthews led the Birds with 93 receiving yards and the defense got a late stop to secure a 24-18 win at Wembley Stadium.
They were the road team then, but they’re the “home” team now, opening at Corinthians’ Neo Quimica Arena before playing eight at Lincoln Financial Field and eight on the road in the United States. For that reason, the Brazil game hasn’t been entirely embraced by Eagles fans, but from another perspective, it’s a good opportunity to grow the product and share the Eagles brand in South America while having the distinction of playing the first NFL game in the Southern Hemisphere.
To talk about it, we reached out to one of Brazil’s most famous exports, Max Cavalera. He founded the iconic heavy metal band Sepultura in 1984 and released six albums before leaving in 1996 to form Soulfly. He moved to the United States in the early 90s and lives in Phoenix with his family, where he learned about American football and ultimately became a diehard fan of… the Detroit Lions?
Here’s a portion of our recent interview:
Crossing Broad: I was researching potential guests for this Eagles in Brazil topic and thought to myself, ‘I wonder if Max or Iggor or any of those guys are into football.’ I knew you were soccer fans, but found a story with all of these pictures of you touring Ford Field in Detroit. How did you become a Lions fan?
Max Cavalera: I first moved to America and honestly didn’t like (football) at first. I remember the first games I watched, I was like ‘this stops too much, every 30 seconds there’s a commercial,’ and I couldn’t get into it. And then Gloria (Max’s wife), her dad took us to a Cardinals and Green Bay game, it was a playoff game and right there the switch was turned man. The Cardinals won, Larry Fitzgerald scored, and I just remember coming home and saying ‘I love this, I really love this, this is great.‘ And then I was thinking that it’s cool (my family) is all Cardinals fans, but I wanted to get my own team. I want to find a team that’s mine, and then the Cardinals will be my second team. I’m a Leo, my zodiac sign, so it’s the Lions. And I remember telling Gloria I was going to be a Lions fan and she said ‘ohhhh, get ready to lose, you better like losing.’
CB: I give you credit for that because the Detroit Lions were shit back then. Nobody can ever accuse you of being a plastic fan.
Cavalera: No man (laughs). I rode those hard years and it was tough. I remember she would say ‘it’s gonna be tough.‘ But it’s funny, because in our family, her brothers are all Green Bay fans, another part of the family is Vikings fans, and then some cousins are Bears fans, so we’ve got the whole division in our family.
CB: You’ve got the entire NFC North in the family.
Cavalera: Yeah but it was cool, I found my own team and started rolling with them, started watching the games and got more and more into it, started playing fantasy football with my grandkids and my sons. Now it’s for real. I have a lot of merch, a lot of jackets and shirts. We had a fan that gave us a tour of Ford Field when we had a day off in Detroit. He’s like ‘do you want to come to Ford Field and check it out?‘ And I was like, ‘yeah, fuck yeah I’d love to do that!‘ So we had a whole day there, in the dressing rooms, on the field.
Max at Ford Field – photo: Gloria Cavalera
I remember we actually met an NFL player, what was his name, Kyle Turley?
CB: Yeah, Kyle Turley.
Cavalera: He played for the Rams, right? So he was a huge Soulfly fan, and I remember he came on our bus, him and three or four of his buddies who played, they’re all in the Soulfly bus headbanging and stuff. I don’t know if he was joking or not, but he said ‘I play with my Soulfly shirt underneath (the pads).’ It was cool. He was a huge metal fan. I love when sports and metal combine. Also Randy Johnson lives here in Arizona. The Big Unit.
CB: He’s a metal fan?
Cavalera: He’s a huge metal fan. He goes deep. He knows (the Sepultura song) Troops of Doom and stuff like that. He goes, ‘you guys play Troops of Doom?‘ and I was like ‘whaaaat? fuck, how you know Troops of Doom man?” That shit’s old! That’s old school. He knows all of that. It’s really cool, and I got a chance to go with my brother Iggor last year, Palmeiras are the champions of Brazil soccer. We got to go on the field and introduce the players, just me and him. The crowd was chanting, that was a trip. That was a crazy day. If I get to do that in the NFL one day, it would be awesome.
CB: So when you heard the NFL was going to Brazil, going to Sao Paulo, what was your reaction?
Cavalera: Friggin’ awesome man. I love it. Every time I’ve been down there, more and more I see more shirts in the streets. People wearing (NFL gear). In fact, last couple of times I’ve been there, a lot of the games are on TV and people are watching. I got to watch a Lions game live in the hotel room. I think that was two years ago, and I was thinking ‘this is so cool, I can’t believe they’re actually showing this.’ Because when I lived there, not many people talked about American football. It was really rare. Not many people even knew about it. But now I think it’s going to be huge. I think the place is going to be packed. I think the fans are gonna love it. I’m a huge soccer fan and I got converted to football, you know? The same can happen to the whole country. Just watch it become (big). And it’s cool, I think Brazil is a country where crazy, mania shit like that happens. So it probably will become a big, huge thing down there, like ‘NFL you have to come here every year.’
CB: I’ve watched all these videos of Soulfly and Cavalera and Sepultura playing in Brazil. Rock in Rio, or even Buenos Aires, Santiago, whatever, these crowds are amazing. South American crowds are amazing, not just in music, but in sport and everything else. My thought was, man, if you’re the Eagles, to be picked to be one of the first two teams to play down there, to me that’s an honor. That’s a privilege. And not everybody sees it the way I do, but I know what those fans are like.
Cavalera: Yeah I think it’s going to be really cool man. I think it’ll be somewhat similar to the English and German games, a lot of people with shirts from all the other teams. That’s kind of how it is when you watch those London games. But I hope they bring a bunch of percussion too and bring some samba, maybe get an Eagles drum line going.
CB: Let the fans do their thing and make it a celebration of the sport. You talk about those other foreign games, where yeah, it’s not just fans of the two teams playing, but fans of the sport in general all wearing different NFL colors. It’s a celebration of the sport, being here in this country.
Cavalera: The only thing that would be better is if it was Eagles and Lions. I would have had to fly down there.
CB: Yeah but you’re cheering for the Eagles right? You’re definitely not cheering for the Packers.
Cavalera: Ah no, hell yeah! Eagles baby! All the way (laughs)…. Who’s your favorite Eagles player of all time? Not to put you on the spot or anything.
CB: Nick Foles for obvious reasons. Historically, some of the great defensive players. Brian Dawkins is very loved here. Reggie White for sure. A lot of those old school guys who played on those hard-nosed defensive teams.
Cavalera: I remember watching that Super Bowl when you guys beat New England. That was amazing. That was great.
CB: I think everybody, the neutrals were cheering for us because they were fucking sick of watching the Patriots win.
Cavalera: Yeah, I actually hate those dynasty things. Stop. That’s why I’m happy with the NBA having a different team (win it) every year.
CB: If people are traveling down to Sao Paulo, what would you tell them, what should they do and what should they see?
Cavalera: Well Sao Paulo is like New York. It’s a huge metropolitan place. There are tons of really good restaurants. Definitely go check out the churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse). You guys are familiar with those, right? They bring the steak and keep bringing it to you, you have a red and green marker on your table. If you keep it green, they keep bringing meat and they don’t stop. All the best cuts man. There’s a lot of really cool neighborhoods to visit. And if you’re interested in different stuff, it’s about 10 or 15 minutes outside the center, but there’s a huge reptile zoo. It’s kind of famous because they have all of these crazy ass snakes from the jungle. Nobody else in the world has them. I’ve been there twice and it’s insane. It’s called Butantan. The place is legit. It’s really cool. And if you have the time, I would highly recommend jumping on a flight and going north, visit Bahia and Recife. The coastline is beautiful. Those are amazing cities with old architecture, Portuguese tile houses and cobblestone streets. Beautiful.
Here’s our full discussion. Eagles in Brazil in September. Let’s gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo