AS JORDAN LOVE SEES DOCTORS, THE NFL MUST PROTECT PLAYERS ON BRAZILIAN SOD

The international tour shouldn’t reduce regular-season games to injury farces, with Green Bay’s star quarterback helped off with knee issues while Barkley fixed his cleats to dominate for the Eagles

     Of the many slips and slides that befuddled players in Sao Paulo, where Pele might have fallen, Jordan Love has our ultimate medical scrutiny. Did we see a popping of his left knee Friday night? Are we watching a complication for a quarterback who earned a $220-million contract in one-half a season, making him pro football’s highest-paid player?

     “I don’t know,” said Matt LaFleur, coach of the Green Bay Packers, wondering after traveling 11 hours to jeopardize a player who made Aaron Rodgers expendable.

     “Whatever it is, I know he’s going to get through it,” receiver Christian Watson said. “We’re going to get through it.”

     If Love loses time, we’ll have a big question of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who was drinking Caipirinha cocktails with Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie. Shouldn’t someone have fixed the turf at Arena Corinthians, where Love slipped several times and injured his calf before he was twisted by two defenders in the final seconds? Was the league so bent on selling the sport — to millions of intrigued Brazilians — that it couldn’t have waited beyond the season’s second game to make another international visit? The marketers had the gumption to describe the game as “First Friday,” which only upset America’s high school crowds, without scrutinizing a fiber-and-grass surface that forced players to change shoes throughout the evening.

     All of these concerns for another shot of global growth and even larger revenues? At least one player who found better cleats was basher Saquon Barkley, who lost five yards, found a shoe guy and scored three touchdowns in a 34-29 Eagles victory. In this sense, as coach Nick Sirianni yelled at officials and wasn’t in firm sideline control, he helped players and removed personal hot-seat pressure after last season’s in-house attitude failures. “We’ve gotta do whatever you’ve gotta do, change your cleats,” he said at halftime. “But it’s a problem, that’s for sure.”

     “I mean, y'all saw out there that it was kind of rough to get traction,” quarterback Jalen Hurts said. “Definitely challenging on that field. It's not the type of field we're used to playing on.”

     Even LeBron James, a tweeter first and a basketball player second, wrote this on X, “Man this field sucks!!!” Said former Packers offensive lineman David Bakhtiari: “All players should be pissed about this. No one wants to watch players slip, or dudes’ feet being locked in the turf, increasing the % of injury. It’s 2024. The NFL is king. They’ve got more than enough money. Spend a little to get a lot back. The fans and players deserve it.” Yet there was Goodell, smiling on the field, speaking of turning five global games into 16. That means each of the 32 franchises would participate during regular seasons. First London, then Germany, now Brazil. Spain is next. Then Paris, then Asia, then Australia, then Saturn and Jupiter.

     “Just look around. It’s a global sport,” Goodell said. “This is going to put us on a rocket ship. The ownership has approved eight games already. I hope to get that to 16 at some point in the future. Let's see how that goes.”

     Well, he might want to sit down with owners and discuss travel and torture. Maybe they want to win the game, instead of watching a star quarterback helped off the field way, way down there in South America. Goodell is focused on massive development as his ratings continue to soar, with a record average audience of 28.9 million watching Kansas City’s win over Baltimore on opening night.

     Try telling that to Love, who had to rest his ailing leg on a long return flight. “That’s the franchise right there,” defensive lineman Kenny Clark said. If the new quarterback is Malik Willis, Detroit will feel easier about winning the NFC North and Chicago can realistically ponder a postseason berth. In Philadelphia, the Eagles overcome early mistakes by Hurts and survived with Barkley and receiver A.J. Brown, who caught a 67-yard touchdown. The defense beat up Love before he was vanquished.

     “Yeah, I’m the first person to ever score in South America. That’s cool,” said Barkley, whose departure from the New York Giants for $37.7 million might lead to management changes. “I’m always about visualizing success and putting positivity in my mind. That is one of my goals this year: Be more of a positive thinker. It's so special that out of all the guys we have on a talented team — today might have been my day of scoring touchdowns, and it was never no hate. It was like, ‘Go ahead, go get four.’ ’’

     “He was just balling,” offensive tackle Lane Johnson said. “Every time he scored, I was hauling ass up there trying to celebrate with him.”

     Said Sirianni, who almost lost his job a year after losing the Super Bowl: “Man, did Brazil get a great game tonight. We converted some people to be big-time fans.”

     The ride back to Philadelphia, around 9 1/2 hours, will be much easier than a trek through the path of troubled Cheeseheads. “I don’t know if Sao Paulo knows when to cheer, but it was great,” Brown said. “It was loud the entire time. They kind of got a bad rap. We got a whole bunch of ‘Don’t do’s,’ but it’s been great since we got here.”

     “Here in South America, you see how passionate they are,” Barkley said. “One of my boys actually lives here, and he sent me a video of a soccer game to see the energy they have. I think it matches what Philly has. If you need a team to root for, why not the Philadelphia Eagles?”

     The NFL will be back, aired by a streamer such as Peacock. Next time, Jordan Love might choose to stay at 1265 Lombardi Avenue. “Soccer fields are made for speed and agility,” J.J. Watt posted. “Smaller bodies gliding across surfaces with minimal contact — they are not properly conditioned to have the size & strength of NFL players cutting, pushing and driving all game.”

     They played an NFL game on a soccer field.

     Put that in your rocket ship, Roger.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.