FRISCO, Texas — Jerry Jones said Tuesday that he is comfortable the field at Maracanã Stadium will be ready for the Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro. The Cowboys owner and general manager made his weekly appearance on Shan & RJ on 105.3 The Fan two days after a 37-20 win over the Washington Commanders.
The field has taken unusually heavy rainfall over the past six weeks. NFL field director Nick Pappas told The Associated Press on Monday that the league feels it is in a good spot, and he said the NFL shipped a tarp to Rio about a week ago to protect the turf.
After Sunday’s game, Jones said he was not up to date on the field and knew no more than he had before kickoff. He still did not know on Tuesday whether reports described the surface as too hard or too soft.
“I’m comfortable that the field will be ready for us, and they’ve had a lot of rain down there, but the conditions that are there are not concerning to me right now. It’s realistic we can have a good game on the field,” Jones said.
“I don’t know, but I do feel that we have moved games that we were concerned about fields, so rest assured that we wouldn’t be going down there and all set up if we didn’t think we were ready to play the game in whatever conditions exist down there right now,” Jones continued. “I feel very comfortable with the field.”
Cowboys Staff Visited Maracanã Stadium Twice, Jerry Jones Says
The Cowboys fly to Brazil on Thursday night. Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said after Sunday’s game that players had Monday off and that the team would treat the week like a short week.
“We’ve had people there. We’ve had, I think, on two different occasions, we’ve had staff and people go down and look at everything from the facilities to the fields. And again, I think it’s worth noting there’s been a lot of rain. And it is an open stadium,” Jones explained.
“And so it’s going to have the impact of having those weather conditions. And that’s football. It’s really football. So if you look at it, I had always thought that football was subject to the elements,” Jones added. “That still doesn’t diminish the need to in advance feel good about the field, feel that it’s a safe place to play. There may be some slipping. I played a lot of games in the rain, in the mud, and so that’s part of our game.”
Dallas Cowboys Face Baltimore Ravens In NFL’s First Rio De Janeiro Game
Sunday’s game is the NFL’s first in Rio and Brazil’s third regular-season NFL game, after two in São Paulo. Maracanã holds more than 70,000 and hosted the 1950 and 2014 World Cup finals.
Baltimore won 28-25 when the teams last met, in Week 3 of the 2024 season. Dallas is 1-1 and the designated home team Sunday. Kickoff is 3:25 p.m. CT on CBS.
