'Told us not to leave the hotel': Security beefed up amid player concerns ahead of NFL's first match in Brazil

The NRL's historic push into Las Vegas earlier this year marked the first time a competition game was played on foreign soil.

Like the NRL, the National Football League, is looking to expand into new markets. And while the most popular sport in the most populous western nation has already played competition games outside of the US since 2005, the sporting behemoth breaks new ground this weekend.

Brazil will host the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers on Saturday morning (AEST) at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo, the first NFL game ever played in South America.

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It's a historic event for a sporting league that is often a point of reference for smaller leagues around the world, but some of the players involved, who not only have to win a game but play brand ambassador at the same time, aren't too thrilled about the venture.

In the lead up to the match, Eagles players openly questioned security issues that were raised with them in a team meeting while speaking to reporters ahead of their departure.

Star wide-receiver AJ Brown said players were told not to walk around the streets holding their mobile phones.

"We had a meeting with a whole bunch of 'don't do's.' So, I'm just trying to go down there, win a football game and come back home," he said.

When asked about some of the things player are prohibited from doing he said: "Things that we would normally do here, as simple as just walking down the street with your phone in your hand."

Defensive star Darius Slay Jr expanded on the team meeting held before leaving for the Brazilian city, which is the biggest in the southern hemisphere.

"Week one, I'm looking forward to it, I can't wait," Slay Jr. said recently on his Big Play Slay podcast.

"But man, I do not want to go to Brazil, you want to know why? I'm here to tell you why. They already told us not to leave the hotel. They told us we can't do too much going on because the crime rate is crazy.

"I'm like, NFL why y'all wanna send us somewhere where the crime rate is this high and we out the country?

"You know, the first thing people are thinking is like some terror could possibly happen. I told my family do not come down there because I'm not going to be nowhere to be found.

"I'm going to be in the hotel chilling, minding my business, playing my game after a long nine-hour flight."

Earlier this week, Slay apologised "to anyone I offended" in a post on X.

In response to players' concerns the city of Sao Paulo has tightened security with civilian and military police during the game and at tourist hot spots.

"To guarantee the safety of the players, the military police will reinforce the number of personnel upon arrival of the delegations at the Guarulhos Airport and escort the teams to their hotels, training sites and the stadium," a statement read.

The build up to the game in Brazil has seen a giant mural of quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo, with their faces gazing skyward as part of the 108-foot-high piece on the side of a downtown building.

Crica Monteiro, a graffiti artist with more than two decades of experience, worked with six others to create the giant mural that was commissioned by the NFL in partnership with local company Dionisio AG.

The artists spent 11 days on the mural, applying the finishing touches this week.

The request to Monteiro's team was to depict the sport with a Sao Paulo touch. Many outsiders and some of the city's own 12 million residents call it a concrete jungle in the tropics. The artist used orange, red and yellow to represent the tropics and depicted Sao Paulo's grey sidewalk beneath them.

“I mostly do graffitis of Black women, so it was totally unexpected to do this,” Monteiro told The Associated Press by phone. “These two are interesting people. What I brought was not to put them against each other. I wanted to catch the subtlety of their expressions. My characters always have a deep look.”

Monteiro said she became more interested in American football after hearing the story of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who in 2016 began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

“American football is in a position of defiance for me, and so is NBA basketball. When I thought about Hurts and Love up there, I thought of two Black men playing their own game and trying to win,” the artist said.

A mural of similar size covers another building in Sao Paulo as part of the same initiative. Artist Bruno Big painted Eagles and Packers players fighting for the ball in front of a blue backdrop.

Monteiro believes the paintings will make some Brazilians more interested in American football.

“Sao Paulo is different from other cities in Brazil. It is more multicultural. Our people are very curious and very creative,” she said.

- with AP