Jerry Jones isn’t sweating the field in Rio de Janeiro, and the Cowboys owner made that clear with kickoff just days away.
Dallas is set to face the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday in the NFL’s first regular-season game at Maracanã Stadium, and Jones said Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan that he expects the surface to be ready despite the rain that’s hit the area.
“I’m comfortable that the field will be ready for us. They’ve had lot of rain down there but the conditions there are not concerning to me right now. It’s realistic we can have a good game on the field,” Jones said.
Todd Archer of ESPN posted the comments Tuesday.
The league, at least publicly, is projecting the same confidence. NFL field director Nick Pappas told ESPN on Monday there are “no concerns right now” and said staff members are on site monitoring the grass after a soccer match Sunday.
That optimism comes with some baggage. Soccer players who’ve used Maracanã recently have complained about the pitch, with Flamengo goalkeeper Agustín Rossi pointing to bumps in both penalty areas after matches played through record rainfall.
Dallas has also been saying the right things internally. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones sounded the same note a day earlier on the same radio station, saying the lack of contingency plans told him the league was moving ahead.
The Athletic reported that stance Monday. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer added that his operations staff has been in direct contact with the league and that he shares that confidence.
The Cowboys and Ravens both arrive in Brazil at 1-1. Dallas is coming off a 37-20 home win over the Washington Commanders on Sunday, a game in which Dak Prescott threw four touchdown passes and moved past Tony Romo for the franchise record. Baltimore dropped a 24-17 home decision to the New Orleans Saints.
Kickoff Sunday is 4:25 p.m. ET on CBS.
There’s still plenty of reason for teams to keep an eye on the surface. Player-safety concerns have followed NFL games in Brazil before, including the 2024 São Paulo opener, when Green Bay quarterback Jordan Love suffered a knee injury late against Philadelphia after being rolled up. Some observers pointed to the field even though the play itself involved contact.
The discussion has only gotten louder this summer with temporary grass installations at NFL stadiums for the World Cup, including AT&T Stadium, which went back to turf before Week 1.
Dallas will treat Sunday as a home game on the schedule, even if the setting is anything but familiar. The Cowboys last played an international regular-season game in 2014 in London. Both teams are scheduled to fly Thursday and practice Friday in Brazil.
The football questions are pretty straightforward. Can Baltimore finish drives after its fourth-quarter collapse against New Orleans?
Can Dallas do more on the ground after managing just 66 rushing yards against Washington? A soft field won’t answer either one, but it could make both problems harder to hide.
For now, Jones’s message is simple: the game is happening, and he expects the field to be good enough.
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