{"id":817752,"date":"2026-03-17T20:27:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817752\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T20:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T20:27:26","slug":"nfl-season-is-starting-on-wednesday-in-new-quirk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/817752\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL season is starting on Wednesday in new quirk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 NFL season is kicking off a bit earlier than usual.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The season opener will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 9, instead of the usual Thursday, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JBFlint\/status\/2033931277393662191?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As defending champs, the Seahawks will almost assuredly host that game against a still unknown opponent at Lumen Field in Seattle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The game will air on NBC, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38809199\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/NFL_Workplace_Investigation_Football_01136-60215.jpg\" alt=\"The NFL logo is seen before the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz.\" class=\"wp-image-38809199\"  \/>The NFL logo is seen before the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz.  AP<\/p>\n<p>Despite talks of the league starting the season with the 49ers-Rams bout in Melbourne, Australia, that game will take actually place on Thursday of the opening week.<\/p>\n<p>The NFL started each of the past two seasons with an international game on the first Friday of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But with the season starting the second weekend of September, the league can\u2019t schedule a game on the opening Friday due to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which prevents the NFL from scheduling games on Friday nights from mid-September to mid-December.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The league\u2019s full schedule and matchups are expected to be released in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The move to Wednesday marks yet another example of the NFL\u2019s expanding dominance of the sports calendar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/03\/26\/sports\/nfl-will-have-christmas-day-games-again-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NFL held two games on Christmas Day<\/a> despite it being a Wednesday, fully stepping over the NBA\u2019s usual marquee holiday slate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.59501558;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"941\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/02-08-26-seattle-seahawks-120757023.jpg\" alt=\"Sam Darnold #14 of the Seattle Seahawks calls a play during the first quarter.&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-38809497\"  \/>Sam Darnold and the Seahawks will likely open the season on a Wednesday. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n<p>A year earlier, the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/11\/20\/sports\/with-first-nfl-black-friday-game-on-tap-amazon-readies-nba-play\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">NFL added a Black Friday game<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/11\/sports\/nfl-exploring-adding-thanksgiving-eve-game-as-soon-as-this-year\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">ESPN\u2019s Adam Schefter reported<\/a> that the NFL was \u201cexploring\u201d adding a game on Thanksgiving Eve.<\/p>\n<p>League brass also appears to be pushing to add another game to the schedule, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/20\/sports\/robert-kraft-wants-nfl-to-go-to-18-game-schedule-with-one-radical-change-for-all-teams\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">jumping to 18 games<\/a> after having just moved to 17 games in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The NFL has also set its eyes on the international market in recent years, playing a record seven games overseas in 2025, with matchups in Brazil, Ireland, England, Germany and Spain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL season is kicking off a bit earlier than usual.\u00a0 The season opener will take place&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6,1902,261,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-817752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-roger-goodell","11":"tag-seattle-seahawks","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116246405555611664","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}