Seahawks vs. Patriots: Why the NFL season is opening on a Wednesday for just the second time in 107 years — SkimNews
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- NFL will open its 107th season on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 8:20 p.m. ET with Seahawks vs. Patriots on NBC/Peacock, just the second Wednesday season opener in league history.
- The league moved the opener to Wednesday so the defending champion Seahawks could officially play first, before the Rams-49ers game in Australia kicks off Friday morning local time (Thursday night ET).
- The only previous Wednesday season opener came in 2012, when the Cowboys-Giants game was shifted to avoid conflicting with Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
- Commissioner Roger Goodell said the Australia game "isn't a circus" and confirmed the NFL plans to return "for the long term," raising the prospect of recurring Wednesday openers tied to the overseas series.
- The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 bars televised NFL games on Fridays from the second weekend of September through mid-December, which is why no Friday Week 1 game appears on the 2026 calendar — the first Friday falls on Sept. 11.
- The next chance for a Friday Week 1 game won't come until 2029, when Labor Day's date again permits it, potentially enabling a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday opening-week tripleheader.
Why it matters: The Wednesday opener is a scheduling squeeze created by the NFL's Australia expansion colliding with the 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act's Friday blackout — meaning fans must plan around a midweek game in perpetuity if overseas games become routine. NBC is even deploying Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth in a 'Hump Day' camel commercial to make sure viewers don't miss the unusual kickoff.
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