New York Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton will join the rest of his team opening up the regular season Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.
Their rivals in that of the Philadelphia Eagles are set to take on the Green Bay Packers a couple days earlier in Brazil. The game itself will kick off Friday night in Sao Paulo amid growing questions about player safety.
As the NFL looks to expand its brand to South America, there is some second guessing about whether playing in the crime-ridden Brazil makes a ton of sense.
We’ve heard both Packers and Eagles players speak out against playing in Brazil. Most recently, that included Philadelphia cornerback Darius Slay.
“I do not want to go to Brazil. You want to know why? I’m going to tell you why,” Slay said.
“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 would you want to send us somewhere with a crime rate this high?”
For the purpose of full disclosure, the crime rate in Sao Paulo is slightly higher than that of Philadelphia. But we digress.
As for Slay’s comments, he’s walking them back and has apologized.
“I want to apologize to anyone I offended, that wasn’t my intention. I’m Looking forward to playing in your beautiful country and i’ve heard yall are very passionate just like our amazing Eagles fan. Just a few more days, can’t wait,” Slay wrote on X.
This seemingly is not the end of the drama with less than 48 hours to go ahead of Philadelphia and Green Bay opening their regular season. Others have taken note, too.
New York Giants’ Darius Slayton Has Perfect Response To Darius Slay Comments
Slayton, a wide receiver on the Giants, also took to X. His response to Slay’s comments was pretty much as perfect as possible.
Darius Slay. Darius Slayton. Get it? Got it? Good.
In what has to be considered a pretty hilarious coincidence, no one in Brazil is going to see this post. Their government banned X after a rift with Elon Musk. Heck, no one in the South American nation is going to see Slay’s original apology.
It’s certainly going to be interesting to see socials on Friday, with reporters on hand in Sao Paulo being unable to post on X.
As for what authorities in Brazil are doing to quiet concerns over player safety, they are apparently taking drastic measures.
“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,” the government said in a statement obtained by ESPN.
Nothing will quiet concerns more than a military presence in a foreign nation. Welp!
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