{"id":39623,"date":"2025-05-10T18:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T18:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/39623\/"},"modified":"2025-05-10T18:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T18:08:12","slug":"nfl-facing-backlash-over-reported-chiefs-decision-for-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/39623\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Facing Backlash Over Reported Chiefs Decision for Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Chiefs may be playing regular season football again earlier than expected\u00a0\u2014 and in an entirely different country.<\/p>\n<p>According to sources cited by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FOS\/status\/1921211372983251076\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Front Office Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Front Office Sports<\/a>, the NFL is &#8220;closing in&#8221; on an agreement for the Chiefs to be the Week 1 opponents for the Los Angeles Chargers&#8217; opening Friday game in Sao Paulo, Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The news follows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/45074387\/nfl-nears-deal-youtube-september-5-chargers-game-brazil\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:reports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">reports<\/a> that the Brazil game could become the first in NFL history to be streamed exclusively for free on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs, coming off a 40-22 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX in February, would be the &#8220;road team&#8221; for the traditional AFC West divisional matchup taking place on a different continent.<\/p>\n<p>Though the decision is not yet official, fans are already furious with the potential arrangement.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) looks on prior to the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/adf1c97b03a4e154d627e67dbaf9fa00.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) looks on prior to the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The start of the 2024 season marked the first NFL game played in Brazil, featuring the Eagles defeating the Green Bay Packers 34-29. It counted as a home game for Philadelphia, but the team still had eight home games and eight away games\u00a0\u2014 including an unchanged NFC East slate\u00a0\u2014\u00a0in the remaining portion of its regular season schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>If the Chargers play the Chiefs, it would replace one of their four home divisional games.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Critical divison game wasted on an international audience, harming competitive balance,&#8221; said a frustrated\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sflone\/status\/1921233120537317440\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:response;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">response<\/a>\u00a0to the news on X.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Are you kidding???&#8221; one <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/dylstew09\/status\/1921219630518968494\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chargers fan;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Chargers fan<\/a> said in disbelief. &#8220;Starting with a division game in Brazil??!! I thought for sure we\u2019d play the Texans to start the year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is so dumb. SoFi is literally the best stadium in the league, why would you put that game in Brazil,&#8221; criticized a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/avataroslo\/status\/1921227424307539975\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:reply;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">reply<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Opening week game Chiefs vs Chargers in Brazil on YouTube\u2026 none of this words should be in the Bible,&#8221; complained one\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/taybiIIionaire\/status\/1921223772486402404\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:fan;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">fan<\/a>. &#8220;Undo it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why the Chiefs,&#8221; wondered another <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Maroso__\/status\/1921222722375364993\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:user;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">user<\/a>. &#8220;So stupid.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The answer is simple: Kansas City is the NFL&#8217;s biggest draw. During the first 11 weeks of the 2024 NFL season, before altered holiday broadcast schedules, the Chiefs took part in <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/chiefs-vs-bills-sees-massive-224142228.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-ylk=\"slk:four of the five most-watched TV broadcasts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" target=\"_blank\">four of the five most-watched TV broadcasts<\/a> in the NFL. The league likely has eyes on a repeat of the early-season ratings dominance that Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce&#8217;s team could provide.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs could boost in-person demand for ticket sales as well. Kansas City is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/40918735\/international-nfl-search-trends-brazil-kelces-49ers-more\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:most-searched NFL team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">most-searched NFL team<\/a> on Google outside of the United States in 2024, while Kelce and Mahomes ranked No. 1 and No. 2 among most-searched players. Kelce&#8217;s girlfriend, Taylor Swift, has a massive fan base in Brazil and played six shows on her historic &#8220;Eras Tour&#8221; in the South American country.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The reported decision may be rational, but that will not make the Chargers fans feel any better about it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/nfl\/kansas-city-chiefs\/travis-kelce-makes-announcement-after-espn-pat-mcafee-fiasco-new-heights-podcast\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Travis Kelce Makes Announcement After Pat McAfee Fiasco;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Related: Travis Kelce Makes Announcement After Pat McAfee Fiasco<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/could-chargers-trade-najee-harris-183653225.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Could Chargers Trade Najee Harris After 2025 NFL Draft?;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Could Chargers Trade Najee Harris After 2025 NFL Draft?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kansas City Chiefs may be playing regular season football again earlier than expected\u00a0\u2014 and in an entirely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2064],"tags":[14410,241,7,110,1014,262,2444,2443,859,6,109,9548,14409,222,8646,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-39623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-chargers","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-chargers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-losangeleschargers","16":"tag-mahomes","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","19":"tag-regular-season-schedule","20":"tag-sao-paulo","21":"tag-texans","22":"tag-the-green-bay-packers","23":"tag-travis-kelce"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114484878524406951","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}