Josh Jacobs on the "Green Light with Chris Long" podcast. Screengrab: ‘Green Light with Chris Long’
NFLPodcastsBy Sam Neumann on

When Chris Long had Josh Jacobs on his podcast, he probably wasn’t expecting the Green Bay Packers running back to break some news.

Jacobs dropped a surprising detail on the Green Light podcast with Chris Long. For the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in South America, the Eagles and Packers will face off in São Paulo, Brazil. Apparently, there’s an unofficial rule there — they can’t wear green.

“They said, I guess, something to do with the gangs and stuff,” said Jacobs. “They said we not going to Rio. They told us, they was like, man, this one of those places where they probably won’t let us leave the hotel…They probably gonna have armored vehicles following us around. I said, ‘Bro, why are we out here? Why are we here?'”

As it turns out, that’s not true.

Here’s what NFL chief spokesman Brian McCarthy told Daniel Kaplan for a Front Office Sports piece regarding the idea the teams couldn’t wear green and would be under heavy security:

“No, neither of these items are true. One of the host stadium’s rival soccer clubs wears green but the league did not say players could not wear green. That is false. Multiple league officials from across the league have made multiple planning trips. As with any international game, we have comprehensive security plans in place coordinated with local officials. Again, there was no guidance provided to the clubs as suggested here.”

Jacobs responded by saying he was “misinformed.”

Despite being debunked hours earlier, the rumor about no green in São Paulo spread like wildfire. Even Barstool Sports’ Bussin’ with the Boys account tweeted it on Friday morning, treating it as if it was based in fact.

Only to “retract” it a half hour later.

Barstool posted an article on it around 10:15 a.m. ET Friday morning.

Even with it being debunked, it’s still up across multiple aggregation accounts. However, some have at last seemingly been given the Community Notes treatment.

This is another story showing how rumors become facts in the social media age.

[FOS]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann