How the Eagles are hoping to make their longest game flight to Brazil a ‘normal football trip’

Darius Slay is bringing his travel PC on the plane and is hopeful the internet signal is strong enough to support playing Call of Duty: Warzone. Britain Covey normally reads self-help and inspirational leadership books, but his plan for the Eagles’ Wednesday flight to São Paulo is to “get lost in some fake world” of the new fantasy book he just picked up.

Jahan Dotson? The new wide receiver knows all about the team’s wishes for the players to mostly stay awake during the 10-hour journey to Brazil.

“I don’t know how well that’s going to work with me,” Dotson said. “That’s a long time.”

The Eagles have been planning for their season-opening trip to Brazil since the league announced in February that they’d be the designated team to play the NFL’s first game in South America. The Eagles have traveled abroad before, most recently to London in 2018. But flying to London from the East Coast closely mirrors flying to California, which the Eagles will do later this season when they play the Rams in Los Angeles.

That’s why a lot of emphasis has been put on the plane ride itself. The Eagles are staying in Philadelphia until Wednesday morning — São Paulo only being an hour ahead made getting acclimated a lesser concern then, say, London — and are flying to Brazil on a Boeing 777, a larger plane than the one they flew to England in 2018. There will be an increased emphasis on hydration — before, during, and then especially on the return flight home — and nutrition. The Eagles structured the flight time to arrive in São Paulo in time to have a meal and then get a normal night of sleep before they “hit the ground running” Thursday before playing in Friday’s game, said assistant general manager Jon Ferrari, who has been heavily involved in the planning of the trip.

» READ MORE: Some Eagles are worried about the São Paulo trip. Tanner McKee aims to talk them down.

Ferrari has worked closely with Dan Ryan, the team’s director of team travel and logistics; Greg Delimitros, vice president of equipment operations; Tony Leonard, head groundskeeper; Tom Hunkele, vice president of sports medicine/head athletic trainer; nutrition coordinator Stephanie Coppola; and Pat Dolan, vice president of football technology.

Some of them traveled to São Paulo in April to get a lay of the land. São Paulo is the most populated city in the Americas. “It’s a big city to wrap your head around,” Ferrari said. The trip is an NFL event, but the Eagles had some choices. The league presented the Eagles (and Packers) with a “menu,” Ferrari said, when it came to picking their accommodations. The Eagles are staying about 30 to 40 minutes from Corinthians Arena and about 15 minutes from the airport.

The visit also allowed Eagles staff members to have an understanding about the area around the team hotel. Some Eagles, including Slay, have voiced their displeasure about the trip, citing fears of crime. The Eagles held a team meeting last week, during which they informed players about the area they’re staying in and how the trip would be structured. Some players have intimated that they’d be forced to stay in their hotels, but Ferrari said “there’s nothing set prohibiting them from doing anything.”

“The length of the flight is the big difference,” Ferrari said. “But when we get off that plane and get through customs, we want it to be as normal and football-focused and football-forward as possible.”

After eating and sleeping Wednesday night, the Eagles have a walk-through Thursday and a community event. Friday, of course, is a “normal” game day, and the Eagles are flying back to Philadelphia right after the game.

» READ MORE: Brazil’s Eagles fans and their online community are coming together to party: ‘This will be their Super Bowl’

There aren’t many, if any, components of the trip the Eagles haven’t gone over. They shipped some equipment via boat and other items will be sent on a cargo plane. Ferrari said Leonard, the groundskeeper, was on that initial trip in April and the grass won’t present any abnormal issues for the team. There’s a new hospital near the stadium that Ferrari said is “state of the art” and there are contingency plans in place if a member of the team needs to stay behind to be cared for before returning home.

The team, Ferrari said, is not taking any additional public health measures for the trip, given the short nature of its stay and the location in São Paulo. The Eagles have allotted time to get to and from the stadium during what is expected to be a busy travel time ahead of Sete de Setembro, the country’s independence holiday, which is Saturday.

Brazil, Ferrari said, has great meat and produce, and Coppola, the nutrition coordinator, is making sure that the Eagles have access to those things and have the ability to have them prepared the way the team would normally prepare and serve food around a game day.

Everything down to the jerseys the Eagles will wear has been thought out. The team is debuting a new color combination. The players will wear black helmets, white jerseys, and black pants, a nod to the colors of Corinthians, the soccer team that plays in the stadium. But as the jersey drama faded away, and the fears of rampant crime were possibly quelled, the latest question mark around the game is the concerns about the air quality, with some wildfires burning in the state of São Paulo. Right now, the air quality is fine, and Ferrari said there hasn’t been any discussion or worry that the game could be impacted.

“We’ve been doing everything we can on the back end so for the players and coaches it’s a normal football trip,” Ferrari said. “It’s a special, unique opportunity, but it’s a normal football trip.”

» READ MORE: ‘Brains and preparation’: How Kellen Moore’s teaching talent can galvanize Jalen Hurts and the Eagles

Just one with a much longer flight. Covey will be reading or listening to a wide range of music, including some musical theater tunes, and Slay will hope to be gaming. Dotson has plenty of music ready, but he’s not sure how many songs he’ll hear.

“We’ll see how much of the playlist gets listened to and how much my eyes are closed, snoring,” he said.

Reminded about the suggestion to stay awake, Slay laughed. He can’t play video games for 10 hours.

“It’s only an hour [time] difference,” he said. “I’m sleeping.”