The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles kick off their season in Brazil on Friday night. In order to get to Brazil, both teams will have to take unusually long flights. It will take around 12 hours to get from Wisconsin to Sao Paulo and more than nine hours to get there from Philadelphia.
While players truly committed to the grind are likely planning to raw dog the flight to get in the ideal headspace to dominate a football game, other players spoke with the press about their plans to kill time on the airplane. Basically, they're all going to watch something or sleep, but there were a couple other options.
The Eagles are flying during the day "by design" so that the team can arrive, have dinner and get a good night's sleep, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia. Still, some players are looking to get some rest. Dallas Goedert, Avonte Maddox, Jalen Carter and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. are all planning on napping or sleeping.
But most guys are going to watch movies or binge some television. Many mentioned Netflix. Your Honor, Narcos, The Boys and The Sandman were all mentioned by name. Kenny Pickett has downloaded the first two seasons of The Wire on recommendation of Cam Jurgens. Pickett, a self-described "show guy" has no clue he won't even make it to the docks by the time they land.
The one outlier on the team is wide receiver Britain Covey who will be reading the New York Times best selling young adult title Sky's End. "I think it’s definitely meant for teenagers," he told NBC Sports Philadelphia. "But I figure I can relate to my younger sibling-in-laws by reading it."
Then there are the Green Bay Packers. According to the Packers website, Jordan Love and Christian Watson hope to get as much sleep as possible. As does cornerback Eric Stokes who predicts he will "still be sleepy" when the flight leaves in the morning so he hopes to get five hours of sleep. After that he will "probably thug it out."
No book-readers spoke to the Packers website did talk to the one person admitting he was bringing video games. "Second-year tight end Tucker Kraft is bringing his Nintendo Switch along to play Mario Kart." That's a lot of grand prix.
So there you have it. You don't have to be a reader, cinephile, gamer or "show guy" to get through a long international flight, but it doesn't hurt.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Eagles and Packers Have Four Basic Options to Survive the Long Flight to Brazil.
