SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Why?

The question is as difficult to ignore as the traffic here in South America's largest city. It hangs in the air like the smoggy veil of wildfire smoke that has shrouded the sky for much of the week.

It has been stated openly by players and muttered privately by staffers. The two head coaches have mostly ignored it. But the real test will come late Friday night. One of them will leave the southern hemisphere with an 0-1 record, and he will have reason to wonder whether that would have been the case had his team played a normal season opener, on a normal schedule, in front of a normal crowd, in a normal place.

On Thursday, the Eagles and Green Bay Packers both got their first look at Corinthians Arena, the 49,205-seat soccer stadium that serves as the unprecedented setting for their season-opening game. While doing so, they attempted to downplay the obvious threats to the competitive integrity of their matchup.

Nick Sirianni and Matt LaFleur preached the message you'd expect out of two veteran coaches. The field is like any other field, 100 yards long, 53.3 yards wide, bracketed by end zones and goalposts, flanked by sidelines. The lights will go on, the best team will win, and that will be that.

"How we go about our business when we play in Philadelphia should be the same way we go about our business here," Sirianni said.

Still, the question lingers.

Why are they here? Why these two teams? Why now?

Half of the answer is obvious. It is the oldest answer in mankind. The almighty dollar explains most things in life. It explains all things in the NFL.

Brazil is a country of 200 million-plus people, the seventh-most populous in the world, with a GDP-per-capita that dwarfs four of the six more populous nations and is comparable to the GDP-per-capita of China. That's a lot of disposable income that is currently being spent on things other than officially licensed NFL jerseys, jackets and caps. It's a lot of television sets tuned into channels that do not pay the NFL for the privilege of broadcasting. It's a lot of eyeballs engaged with sponsors of something other than NFL football.

The Eagles and Packers are here because of that classic capitalist euphemism: growth potential. Two years ago, 2.5 million Brazilians watched the Eagles play in the Super Bowl, according to the NFL. That was a 19% increase from the previous year, but still less than 2% of the potential audience. The appetite is there, as is the meat on the bone.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. At least, nothing that anybody is in a position to complain about. A.J. Brown and Darius Slay may not have understood that when they grumbled publicly about the schedule, but they likely get it now. On Thursday, each of the players who represented the Eagles at the news conference podium was in lockstep with their coaches on the messaging. When somebody asked Jalen Hurts if there had been a team meeting to address the earlier critical comments, the quarterback smiled.

"We'll keep those things in-house," he said.

If the boss man himself spoke to the team, he could have reminded them how their massive salaries are funded. The larger the game grows, the larger the revenue pie that all of them split.

Jeffrey Lurie also could point to the guy who is starting at left tackle. Jordan Mailata is a testament to the mutual value of growing the international game. On Thursday, he spoke eloquently about the potential dividends of playing a marquee NFL game in a market like Brazil.

"This is huge for the game itself, but it's even bigger for the players who are just like me," said Mailata, an Australian who'd never played American football before participating in the NFL's international player development program. "[Players] who come from a different background, for kids who have never heard of the NFL before. Just like me, they can try and attain a career in this."

Lurie's stake in this thing is personal as well. He is far from a reluctant participant. The Eagles may be sacrificing a home game in front of 67,000 to play on a neutral site in front of nearly 50,000, but he isn't simply playing the good soldier. If the NFL sees a lucrative market in Brazil, Lurie certainly sees an opportunity for his team to capture a lucrative share of it. Every Brazilian who watches Friday night's game will see the Eagles dressed in the uniform colors of the second-most popular soccer club in the country. Corinthians has an estimated worldwide fan base north of 30 million, most of whom have access to NFL.com/Shop.

The decision to wear their alternate black uniforms with black helmets wasn't born out of safety concerns, as has been widely speculated on the internet. This was a branding decision, through and through. Likewise with the Packers. Despite technically being the visiting team, Green Bay will take the field in its green-and-gold home jerseys. It's not by accident that those are the official colors of the Brazilian national soccer team.

"Here in South America, you see how passionate they are," Saquon 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."

So, yes, it makes perfect sense. And perfect cents. But the NFL's effort to grow its fan base requires some notable sacrifices from the stakeholders who already exist. Eagles season ticket holders get one less game they'll see in person. Eagles players get 20 hours on a plane and two nights in a hotel, time they'd otherwise be at home. The national television audience gets a marquee game played in circumstances that make the game itself feel secondary.

Will that prove to have been worth it?

The answer could take years.

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