The NFL will open the season on a Wednesday night for the second time ever with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks set to host the first game of the 2026 season.
The NFL announced on Wednesday that the Seahawks will play the traditional opener as Super Bowl champions on September 9.
It comes a day earlier than usual as the league prepares to stage a Week One game in Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.
The only other time the first game of the NFL season was played on a Wednesday came in 2012 when the Dallas Cowboys visited the New York Giants. The game was moved from its usual Thursday spot that year because President Barack Obama was set to speak that night at the Democratic National Convention.
The Rams and 49ers will play their opener on September 11 in Melbourne. The game is expected to kick off at about 10:35am that Friday in Australia, which would be 8:35pm ET on Thursday night in the United States.
The NFL had played Week One games in Brazil the past two seasons on the first Friday night in September. With Labor Day being later this year, the opening Friday for the 2026 season is the second one in September, making the NFL unable to play games that night on television because of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.
While Wednesday games were played occasionally in the early years of the NFL, this will be just the fifth since 1950.
There were two games on Christmas Day when it fell on a Wednesday in 2024, one in 2022 that was delayed because of Covid-19 and the 2012 opener.
