The NFL’s effort to find more places to cram cheese into the pizza likely means the Wednesday night opener is here to stay.
After playing an international game on the first Friday of the 2024 and 2025 seasons (thanks to the fact that it wasn’t the second Friday of September), the league has continued a trend of starting Week 1 with a pair of standalone games on consecutive nights by moving the opening game to Wednesday night and the international game to Thursday night.
During Friday’s conference call regarding the 2026 regular-season schedule, it was made clear that the Wednesday-Thursday Week 1 windows will continue.
“I think you’ll see us certainly playing on a couple of weekday nights to start the year going forward, and Netflix will have a Week 1 game going forward as well as part of that package,” NFL Media executive V.P. and COO Hans Schroeder said.
It’s fair to guess that the NFL will continue with Wednesday-Thursday and, in the years during which the first Friday of the regular season coincides with the first Friday in September, a Friday night game.
That next happens in 2029, 2030, and 2031.
The law that created the NFL’s broadcast antitrust exemption prevents the NFL from televising games on Friday night and Saturday from the second weekend of September until the second weekend of December. It’s a move aimed at protecting high-school and college football.
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