The NFL is opening its 2026 season with a rare Wednesday night kickoff featuring a direct Super Bowl LX rematch. The defending champion Seattle Seahawks will host the New England Patriots at Lumen Field on September 9 at 8:20 p.m. ET. The prime-time opener, broadcast nationally on NBC and streaming on Peacock, comes just months after Seattle defeated New England 29-13 to claim the Lombardi Trophy in February.
This marks the first time in exactly a decade that the league has scheduled a Super Bowl rematch for week one, according to the Associated Press. The last time the NFL paired its finalists in the opening slot was in 2016, when the Denver Broncos hosted the Carolina Panthers. The scheduling also produces only the second Wednesday night season opener in league history.
The league shifted the traditional Thursday night opener to Wednesday to accommodate its expanding global calendar. The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams are scheduled to play the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Melbourne, Australia, the following day on Thursday, September 10. That historic Southern Hemisphere matchup will stream entirely on a new platform, as verified by AP reporting on the Netflix broadcast deal.
The international push continues later in the year, with the Patriots scheduled to play the Detroit Lions in Munich, Germany, and the Dallas Cowboys facing the Baltimore Ravens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But the immediate focus remains on Seattle, where the Seahawks get to raise their championship banner in front of a national audience on an unusual night of the week, as outlined in the official league announcement.