Should NFL Cancel Eagles' Opener After Brazil's Free Speech Ban?

Because of a ban on free speech and danger from historic wildfires, the NFL's inaugural game in Brazil is suddenly in serious jeopardy.

There are growing calls for the game - scheduled for Friday in Sao Paulo - to be canceled. The season kicks off Thursday night when the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Baltimore Ravens, supposedly followed a day later by the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers playing in the first game ever in South America.

Last week Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes instituted a national ban on Twitter in response to owner Elon Musk refusing to ban certain accounts.

Wrote NFL analyst Clay Travis :

"I doubt the NFL would do it, but it would be a strong move to support freedom of speech by canceling next Friday’s game in Brazil over the banning of X in the country & playing Eagles-Packers back home in the US. US reporters, teams & players won’t be able to Tweet from Brazil. The NFL has made a ton of noise about the need to embrace “social justice” whatever that means. The number one most powerful social justice in any country is freedom of speech. Without it, no other freedoms exist."

Though it's almost unfathomable to consider a high-profile NFL game played without social media, with the game planned for years and kick-off only five days away it's highly unlikely the NFL would cancel at this point. The only similar move happened in 2021 when Major League Baseball yanked its All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of Georgia's controversial crackdown on voting rights.

Related: BREAKING: Could Week 1 Eagles vs. Packers be Canceled Due to Wildfires in Brazil?

If Eagles-Packers is played in Brazil, it will do so in alarmingly poor air quality. More than 30 cities around Sao Paulo are battling wildfires that were originally started by criminals and are now raging out of control due to drought conditions in the region.

Brasilia’s Environmental Institute has reported that the drop in air quality is so low that the current levels are considered to be "very unhealthy."