Updated Sept. 9, 2026, 12:17 p.m. ET
It’s a good practice to never question your blessings. So, in the football-loving country we live in, I’m sure many people are following that edict when it comes to this year’s NFL kickoff game landing on a Wednesday.
“Who cares why they’re playing today. Football is back, baby!” And it’s a Super Bowl rematch between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. Our cups runneth over… or maybe it’s a chum bucket. Hard to tell these days.
Anyone else miss the old cadence of Thursday, Sunday, Monday? We don’t really need the NFL on a Wednesday.
Don’t get me wrong, I love football as much as anyone. But the reason there’s a Wednesday opener is because the NFL added a Friday Week 1 international game two years ago, and antitrust laws don’t allow the league to broadcast on Fridays after the first Friday of September. A late Labor Day this year pushed back opening week, so the league moved the Friday international game to Thursday (49ers-Rams in Australia), and moved the traditional Thursday opener to Wednesday.
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It was a conflict created by something nobody asked for. We didn’t need Friday games either.
But fine, we’re here now. They had to do something. How about simply scrap the Friday game this year — or move it to Sunday? It’s not like they didn’t know the timing of Labor Day when this series started. Oh yeah, that’s right. The NFL would never miss an opportunity to spread the gospel of football to the largest audience possible with money to spend.
As exciting as it may be to get the season started a little early, this isn’t about us fans the NFL already has. It’s about the fans the NFL can still win. This boils down to expansion and greed — a bigger footprint. And at what expense? NFL games are increasingly popping up on days we aren’t used to. The season has gotten longer. The playoffs have expanded. Teams are traveling to Brazil, Mexico, Germany and more countries. At what point does it take a toll on players and the product suffers, if it hasn’t already?
I guess that’s a problem for another day. Enjoy Pats-Seahawks, y’all.
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With the match not ending until almost 4 a.m., fans had a simple suggestion for the US Open to prevent these type of marathon matches going so late in the future.
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