The Dallas Cowboys are about to play one of the strangest games on their 2026 schedule, and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo believes owner and general manager Jerry Jones has put his own team in a difficult spot. The Dallas Cowboys are officially the home team when they face the Baltimore Ravens at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

But there will be no AT&T Stadium crowd behind quarterback Dak Prescott, and the Cowboys have to deal with a more than 10-hour flight each way. That is what caught Russo’s attention on First Take this week. His argument was simple: Dallas is giving up the normal benefits of being the home team while still carrying the travel burden that comes with an international game.

“To me, I think this is a terrible job by Jerry Jones. It’s great for the NFL, but I am not playing a home game 10 hours away in Rio de Janeiro,” Russo said on First Take. “… That’s 10 hours, 11 hours to go to Rio to play a football and it’s a Dallas home game. And they come back and they got to play at Houston. I, as an owner of a football team, I am not putting my team in that situation.

“I understand branding. Hey, you don’t see the Giants play a ninth home game on the road. But you know, Jerry, it’s about business. It’s about branding. It’s about the Cowboys. To me, it’s a competitive disadvantage. Would you rather play Lamar Jackson in Dallas? Or would you rather play Lamar Jackson on a neutral fight in neutral field in Rio?”

The trip comes in the middle of a demanding part of the Cowboys’ schedule. They are facing a three-game stretch in 11 days: after the Rio trip, they travel the following week to play the Houston Texans on October 4, and have to return to play Tampa Bay on a Thursday. That makes the Brazil game only the first part of a demanding stretch for Dallas.

Prescott had already spoken about the travel when Dallas’ schedule was announced in May. He acknowledged that the trip would be difficult, but said the Cowboys would have to find a way to handle it.

“The travel will be tough, but it’s part of growing this game,” Prescott said. “We’ll manage. We’ll figure out the best way to take care of our bodies. We’ve been a part of three games in 11 days every year pretty much with our Thanksgiving Day game, so it’s nothing new. We just have to do it earlier.”

The AT&T will miss out on a lot of high-octane action with the Baltimore game being held in Rio. The Dallas defense will face a true test against Lamar Jackson and Co., which has players like Justin Jefferson and Derrick Henry. Dallas needs to build solid pressure on Jackson, who can be a huge threat with his legs, to have some competitive edge.

Then there is the playing surface in Rio. The NFL has said it has a plan to prepare the Maracanã field and its field director, Nick Pappas, said he had “full confidence” the surface would be ready for the game.

But concerns surfaced after soccer players who regularly use the stadium publicly criticized the condition of the grass, with Flamengo goalkeeper Agustín Rossi saying there were bumps across the field, describing the team’s experience of playing on the field as “unbelievable.”

Jones himself had previously dismissed concerns about the physical toll of the international trip, telling Yahoo Sports in May that “[the] wear and tear is a lot less than a night out on the town.”

This will be the NFL’s first game in Rio, making this matchup a priority. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has already gone all-in on taking the league to international markets, adding nine such games to the calendar this year. Goodell is also planning to increase the number in the coming years.

For Russo, though, the bigger question remains whether the Cowboys should have had to give up their home environment in the first place. The NFL gets its international showcase in Rio. Dallas gets the label of home team, but without the familiar stadium, crowd, or routine that normally comes with it.