The NFL is heading to Rio for a marquee Cowboys-Ravens matchup, but the field at Maracanã is already drawing complaints from the people who know it best.
Dallas and Baltimore are set to play there on Sept. 27 in the first regular-season game in the city, with CBS carrying the 4:25 p.m. ET window.
The stadium can hold close to 79,000, and the game was framed as a Brazil showcase from the moment the Ravens were added. Instead, the conversation has shifted to the turf.
Flamengo goalkeeper Agustín Rossi didn’t wait around for anyone to ask about football. After another rough night on that surface, he brought up the NFL game himself.
“You don’t even need to talk about the field, it’s there for everyone to see,” he said. “Both penalty areas are bad as [expletive].
If you look at it, there are bumps everywhere. There’s still going to be an NFL game here during the international break.”
Midfielder Giorgian De Arrascaeta echoed the frustration. “We’ve been struggling a lot in these last few games, and the field keeps getting worse.
It’s getting harder and harder to control the ball.”
That’s a soccer problem for now, but it turns into a Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott problem next Sunday.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said the team sent a group to Rio in late March and already has cargo ships factored into the plan. Dallas players are scheduled to fly Thursday night, and the team can manage the hotel, practice space and travel.
What it can’t manage is the weather or the schedule. There has been two weeks of daily rain, plus a soccer calendar that isn’t stopping.
Stadium CEO Fred Nantes has said the field isn’t at the level they want, pointing to rainfall, heat and a heavy stretch of matches. One more soccer game is scheduled for Sept. 20, leaving the league less than a week to get things ready.
Brazilian reporter Felipe Laurence raised concerns about the same turf in August, when there were still two months to fix it. The NFL spent about $1 million to patch Arena Corinthians before the São Paulo games, but that was a different job entirely. Maracanã’s issue is more basic and more alarming: the grass is already a problem for the sport that uses it every week.
The Cowboys are the designated home team in a matchup that carries real shine on paper. Baltimore won the last meeting 28-25 in Arlington, and Tom Brady spent part of that broadcast on CeeDee Lamb’s body language. This one is supposed to be bigger, with the international schedule continuing to expand and Rio locked into a multi-year deal.
Still, none of that fixes the surface. If the league can rescue the pitch in six days, Cowboys-Ravens still has the feel of a featured Sunday game.
If it can’t, the first big story out of Rio may not be the opening kickoff at all. It may be whether the game should have been played there in the first place.
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