SEATTLE
The NFL season begins tonight, Sept. 9, with the New England Patriots facing the Seattle Seahawks at 8:20 p.m. ET. This marks only the second time in the league's 107-season history that the opening game will be played on a Wednesday.
The NFL traditionally opens its season on Thursday night. This year's shift accommodates another Week 1 matchup in Australia: the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will play at 10:35 a.m. Australian time on Friday, which airs Thursday night in the United States.
The Seahawks, as reigning Super Bowl champions, earned the right to host the season opener. The NFL moved the Seahawks-Patriots game to Wednesday to ensure the defending champions officially play the season's first game.
The only other Wednesday season opener occurred in 2012, when the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants played on a Wednesday night. That game was moved to avoid conflicting with Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. The Giants hosted after winning the Super Bowl.
Pro Football Reference indicates two other seasons—1933 and 1948—featured a Wednesday game in Week 1, but those games were not the season's official opener.
NBC will televise the Patriots-Seahawks game. The network featured its lead NFL announcers, Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, in a commercial with the "Hump Day" camel to promote the unusual Wednesday start.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell confirmed the league plans to play games in Australia regularly. "There's no question that we're going to be playing here again," Goodell said. "Our view is that we're coming here for the long term. We don't come as a one-off. This isn't a circus. This is something that's an investment in this market and we believe that this is long term and will be great for the NFL long term."
The time difference between Australia and the United States means future international games from Australia will likely kick off on Thursday night in the U.S. Fans can stream the Patriots-Seahawks game on Peacock and NFL+.
