It’s hard, and frankly feels a little pointless, to ask a question when you already know the answer is a combination of money, politics, and the unstoppable avalanche of what we affectionately call capitalism but is really just a wild grab for money and attention. Despite all that, sometimes we just want to be heard, and—after watching the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers 34-29 in a stadium you can’t drive to from the suburbs of Philly without hauling your car over something called the Darién Gap—I have a feeling some people do want to be heard.

I grudgingly accept that in five years, the NFL will have its tentacles hooked into every facet of our lives. The league will soon move to a 20-game regular season. It will begin play on Labor Day weekend, then move back to National Buttered Corn Day (August 23, in case you forgot), and finally, on July 4. Replica uniforms will be fully incorporated into our workwear rotation, and our paychecks will soon come with an option to take direct deposit or piggyback on the outcome of Thursday Evening Football thanks to a full integration of FanDuel into our personal financial plan. For the most part, this is all part of the lifecycle of a product that has captivated us all.

But there was something about the fact that the Eagles and Packers were starting their seasons thousands of miles away that bothered me more than I expected. It was after Saquon Barkley scored his second of three touchdowns in his Eagles debut, when he ran around the corner of the end zone with his arms wide open. I personally know two dozen people who have made it their life’s goal to be in Lincoln Financial Field for That kind of moment—that utter buffet of hubris and self-righteousness that comes from watching your favorite team steal the best and most popular player from a former rival, then taking a picture of yourself after he does something awesome, giving the middle finger and sending it to a New York Giants fan—who was waiting for a livestream to buffer so they could watch it from another continent for $10. Not long after, a clip of Corinthians fans cheering after a goal in a football game in the same stadium, and there was something similarly visceral and sweet and familiar about their reaction. I wondered how strange it would have been for those Brazilian fans to see that goal on an artificial turf field somewhere in Charlotte.

Let’s back up a bit and make it clear that we should all be for international football. Truly dedicated international fans are some of the most knowledgeable football minds on the planet and have so many more barriers to entry when it comes to connecting with the sport. We don’t own football, and we are better off as a fan club if everyone can experience the sport in real life. Let us also make it clear that these thoughts have nothing to do with Brazil itself.

Instead, it’s simply this idea that Commissioner Roger Goodell plans to double down on:his wordsfrom a pre-game interview on the ground in Brazil—the international schedule and start selling games to hotbeds around the world. The idea that the league is aiming to make more than the GDP of Luxembourg doesn’t detract from the very deep and specific roots the sport has here in the United States. For example, opening weekend should be as sacred as Thanksgiving when it comes to the NFL calendar. If fans are going to sacrifice a home game, don’t make it the home opener – the first and possibly only chance to attend a game when the team is still undefeated and driven by foolish hopes and ambitions.

The kind of people who live for That moment, which are reborn on That day and form the unshakable foundation of the NFL’s business model, the people who have stuck with the league through all the painful moments and spend a significant portion of their income on tickets, parking, memorabilia and the mafia-style blood oath that is personal seat licenses, don’t deserve to miss out on the opportunity to wear a Giants Barkley jersey with some sort of obscene word written across the logo on a piece of duct tape and have it shown on the air.

I know it’s weirdly specific, but the only people who really thought this game was a great idea were the Brazilian fans, who probably would have been just as happy with a Week 9 game that wasn’t that important to the fans here, and the increasingly wealthy owner class that has all but lost touch with its core consumer base. The kind of people who don’t understand that for some Eagles and Packers fans, Friday night was like being told that this year’s family Christmas was on the dark side of the moon and they had to own a spaceship to attend.

If there is such a desire to show the NFL in different locations, then play it at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium and have Eagles and Packers fans camp out together for a weekend in a parking lot the size of the Kalahari Desert. And while we’re at it, play it at a venue that we’re almost 100% certain can actually host a football game and not unleash some of the best skill position players in the NFL on a field modeled after the Ice Capades surface. The field conditions in London and Munich have been just as bad, at least according to some players who have complained about them afterward.

Again, I’m not naive about why this happened. The first two games of this season have shown the power of the drug the NFL is now allowed to sell around the world. The road show, despite the pressure on local fans, players, coaches, officials and staff, will succeed in sucking millions more into this money vacuum. It really is the perfect sport, and sharing it can be hard, especially on a night like Friday when it felt so far away.