RIO DE JANEIRO – The executive director of the NFL Players Association said Friday that both the NFL and the players union have had experts monitoring the field conditions at Maracana Stadium ahead of Sunday's game between Dallas and Baltimore, and that the union's experts are worried about loose turf leading to too much slipping.
JC Tretter wrote in a lengthy post on social media that players union officials have been talking regularly with the NFL to make sure the field is safe and playable for the league's latest visit to Brazil. That included union experts suggesting better traction to make the field more stable.
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“They recommended reinforced stitching to help the surface hold together and brought in equipment to reinforce as much of the field as possible before the game,” Tretter said. “Our experts will remain engaged and continue evaluating conditions through kickoff.”
Maracana Stadium has been hit by unusually heavy rainfall over the past six weeks. Nick Pappas, the NFL's field director, told The Associated Press from Rio de Janeiro that the league shipped a tarp there to help protect the turf. A crew has been on site since Monday preparing the stadium.
“We’ve got to have plans in place to ensure that you can mitigate the weather the best you can and, right now, we feel we’re in a good spot,” Pappas said.
The NFL has been playing in Brazil since 2024.
The two previous games were at the 48,000-seat NeoQuimica Arena in Sao Paulo, a larger market where both games were sellouts. Some tickets remain for Sunday’s game in the considerably larger venue. The stadium made news this week after some soccer players raised concerns about the field conditions, though the NFL says it’s confident the playing surface will be fine.
The 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium has hosted two World Cup championship games, Olympic gold medal matches for men and women, and numerous clashes between South America’s biggest teams. Now the Ravens and Cowboys will play one of a record nine international contests on the league schedule this season.
Tretter said this week highlights bigger issues surrounding field standards for safety and performance, saying both the NFL and NFLPA have made progress. Tretter noted players' cleats melting in Nashville last week during Philadelphia's win over the Tennessee Titans or frozen fields creating “unnecessary risks.”
There have been field-related issues at two of the three games in Brazil, and Tretter said that's not a coincidence with the climate at this time of the year — it's early spring in South America — making it challenging to maintain the grass surface expected for NFL games.
“We owe it to them to provide the best possible opportunity to succeed,” Tretter said. “Players can overcome a lot. But they shouldn’t have to overcome the field.”
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