The NFL will play its first regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro as the Baltimore Ravens face the Dallas Cowboys at the Maracana Stadium, live on Sky Sports from 9.25pm Sunday; NFL Brazil General Manager Luis Martinez promises a “unique experience” on the league’s return to South America Tum, cha-cha, TOUCHDOWN. Baile funk meets Baltimore, cariocas meet Cowboys. From Rio to the Ravens and De Janeiro to Dallas, the NFL is back in Brazil for a third season. By now the league has discovered that a permit to party knows no meaning of expiration in the carnival epicentre of the world, for New York has met its sleepless match, and so too aspiring-come-rivalling NFL host cities across the globe.
A footballing bloco that has spent the last two years step-ball-changing in Sao Paulo this week reaches the sandy collars of Rio, where the iconic Maracana Stadium will host Lamar Jackson’s Ravens and Dak Prescott’s Cowboys in its first-ever NFL regular-season matchup. “Brazil is an amazing, amazing, amazing country, and the territory, the Brazilians, these vibrant, unique opportunities with food, carnival samba and experiences that are super unique in Brazil I would recommend everyone to live them at least once,” NFL Brazil general manager Luis Martinez tells Sky Sports. Soccer reigns as the unconquerable sporting religion to Rio. Where murals of Neymar and Vinicius Jr dress up the walls of favelas, where children welcome tourists to play football in FIFA Street-style courts.
Ronaldinho and Ronaldo shirts line the walkways of Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, on the sandy canvas of which locals commonly deliver a masterclass in keepy-ups. On any given gameday football is watched on television in barbers, coffee shops, restaurants, beachfront bars, convenience stores and, in this writer’s case, the digital screen of my Argentina-despising Uber driver. But the belief is that footballing obsession breeds sporting obsession. “Yes it is a soccer-dominated market, we all know.
It’s crazy. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the only conversation is going to be soccer, but they are super open, and the fans we have for the NFL, they have really proven that,” Martinez says. “We have vibrant colours to explode that are amazing and very different than the way we have been doing things at theNFL and international. Food and samba, dance, caipirinhas, cantores, it’s so unique.
“We have so many iconic elements, Christ the Redeemer, Pão de Açúcar (Sugarloaf Mountain), Copacabana, Ipanema, it’s super diverse for the creative elements.” Rio features among a record slate of nine international games and as one of three new territories alongside Paris and Melbourne, the latter of which just played stage to the San Francisco 49ers against the Los Angeles Rams in front of 100,000 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The NFL made its debut in Brazil, as well as South America, in September 2024 when the Green Bay Packers faced the Philadelphia Eagles at Sao Paulo’s Corinthians Arena in the opening week of the season. It returned to the same venue the following year when the Los Angeles Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, before the league announced a multi-year commitment to playing a minimum of three regular-season games over five years in Rio. “Rio and Sao Paulo, completely different,” said Martinez.
“One is super, I could say, corporate and industrial, and the other one is chill and vibes. Havaianas everywhere, and coconut water, which is amazing. “So once you understand the way you need to execute things in a different city, it’s just a great magic, and that’s what we are doing, and it’s super exciting.” By the end of the 2026 season the NFL will have played 71 regular-season games outside of the US, dating back to the first in Mexico City in October 2005. From the Estadio Azteca to the Bernabeu, football has spanned some of the most iconic theatres in sport.
It now adds another crowning jewel in the Maracana. “I’m expecting to have the level of noise and volume from Cariocas and everyone attending to be the loudest and biggest from an international game,” Martinez added. “For me it’s literally a real authentic representation of every single element that we identify as a key priority, or as very relevant for a local carioca, that we are exploding, maximizing.” The NFL has seen it all. But never has it encountered such a chameleon city with the same infectious magnetism, from the natural beauty of its beaches and Tijuca National Park to its world wonder, rich sporting heritage and anti-Footloose dance obligation.
So often international games tell the story of more than simply the football, offering new corners of the world an opportunity to showcase the best of their personality and their DNA. Now, it is Rio’s turn. “We are trying to break a Guinness World Record with the biggest jersey on the sand, like a sculpture representing the Rio game,” said Martinez. “We are doing cool surprises on Christ the Redeemer, we are maximising the most relevant and iconic places in the city.
“We are having a female under-15 flag football, adding two community events with both the Ravens and Cowboys. We are having watch parties and influencer activations including flag games. “We are doing very carioca Rio things, like airplanes with messages, kind of cliche but that could be so amazing and unique for us as well to send messages into the air. We are doing activations on the lagoon as well, and for the third year we will have an NFL race, a family walk of 2km and then a 5km race.” Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Beyond the showpiece prestige of the game itself on Sunday is the bigger picture of a lasting and expanding legacy; football is here, but Rio and Brazil want to ensure it is here to stay.
“Crianças, or kids in English, are super relevant, because if they start and they engage with the NFL, they will be there forever, and the passion they have is very different than a natural fan that has been there, an avid fan that has been there forever,” said Martinez. “Our commitment to kids and community is through different pillars. The first one is the flag tournament. We have three national tournaments, with representation from all the regions in Brazil, under-15 female, under-14 co-ed, boys and girls, under 12-co-ed, boys and girls “These three teams that will win these tournaments will represent Brazil.
So we need this exposure, we need this visibility worldwide, not only in Latin America or America. Our ambition is to have a national school program so they can select flag in Brazil.” With the NFL’s arrival and football’s growth comes another avenue to connect with children based in Rio’s favelas, which typically represent the city’s most impoverished communities. “In the first two years we have had representation from favelas in the actual tournament,” Martinez explained. “It’s very different because that is part of the magic as well.
You saw Corinthians club kids that are super immersed in the game versus kids coming from the favela who are probably leaving the favela for the first time ever, imagine the experience. “It’s something that is super rewarding, personally and professionally. Imagine changing your day-to-day for the first time ever, but going somewhere and seeing or meeting an NFL player, or cheerleaders and mascots, and the whole experience. “Our intention is to continue growing and negotiating with these favela organisations, because honestly the talent we have found in favelas is so great for everything, like artists, music composers, graffiti artists, dancers, singers.
We need to give voice to these communities, and that’s part of our job.” The Cowboys (1-1) arrive on the back of a 37-20 victory over the Washington Commanders, during which Prescott threw four touchdown passes to surpass Tony Romo for the all-time franchise record. Behind CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Jake Ferguson, Dallas boast one of football’s most high-powered aerial attacks, which averaged the second most yards in the league last season. Baltimore (1-1) are meanwhile coming off a 24-17 defeat to the New Orleans Saints after blowing an eight-point fourth-quarter lead. The Ravens entered the season with soaring expectations following the appointment of first-year head coach Jesse Minter, who replaced John Harbaugh after 18 seasons tasked with cashing in on the prime of quarterback Lamar Jackson.
The two-time league MVP has been knocking on the Super Bowl door with three Divisional Round exits and one AFC Championship Game defeat since 2019, his Ravens missing out on the playoffs with an 8-9 record as one of the disappointments of last season. Rio de Janeiro welcomes two contenders to town, where caipirinhas meet catches, where tapioca meets tackles, where samba meets sacks, where favelas meet a new brand football. Monday: Rio’s famed Pedra do Sal street party. Tuesday: Sugarloaf Mountain’s sunset DJ.
Wednesday: A visit to Christ the Redeemer. Thursday: A hike through Tijuca National Park. Friday: A night in Lapa. Saturday: Samba dos Guimarães in Santa Teresa.
Sunday: NFL history. Quite the addition your typical unrelenting Rio week.
