Two of the NFL’s marquee franchises are heading to Brazil.
The Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys will travel to Rio de Janeiro for a matchup in Week 3 of the NFL season, [The Baltimore Banner reported on Wednesday](https://www.thebanner.com/sports/ravens-nfl/ravens-cowboys-international-game-rio-de-janeiro-6DLV3AQAUVACLFSXRR75U3CC7M/). It will be the first of three games set to be held in Rio over the next five NFL seasons and the third game being held in Brazil overall. Last year, the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers played in São Paulo for a Friday night Week 1 contest. The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers did the same in 2024.
In each of the past two seasons, the NFL’s Brazil game has been sold to a streaming service. Last year’s Chiefs-Chargers game was the first to air exclusively on YouTube, [drawing 17.3 million global viewers](https://awfulannouncing.com/ratings/chargers-chiefs-17-3-million-global-viewers-nfl-youtube-debut.html). The prior year’s game aired exclusively on Peacock.
No details were provided in the report about where Ravens-Cowboys will air, though deductive reasoning would suggest NBC’s _Sunday Night Football_ is the clear favorite, not a streamer.
Unlike the last two Brazil games, which were both played on Friday, a Week 3 game would not afford the NFL the opportunity to play on Friday or Saturday due to federal legislation protecting those days for high school and college football during that portion of the calendar. That would leave Sunday or Thursday as the only possible days to play the game, though Thursday would seem highly unlikely as traveling to Brazil on a short week would be difficult for the teams.
With Sunday being the only clear option, the NFL would need to schedule it for _Sunday Night Football_ to avoid conflicts with the rest of the afternoon slate. NBC has experience producing both previous Brazil NFL contests, making this game an obvious fit for the network.
Considering the Ravens and Cowboys are two strong television draws, it’d make sense for the NFL to put this type of game in its premiere primetime package.