The 2026 NFL season is expected to begin on a Wednesday, a league source confirmed to The Athletic on Friday.
For the last two decades, the season opener has almost always been on a Thursday, with the defending Super Bowl champion as the host team. However, this year, scheduling hurdles could change course.
The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 prohibits NFL games from being played on any Friday or Saturday from the second Friday in September through the second Saturday in December to prevent direct competition with high school and college football games. The NFL usually begins its season the weekend after Labor Day.
For the past two years, Labor Day fell early enough on the calendar that the NFL was able to host opening-week international games on Fridays and avoid the SBA blackout period. However, this year, Labor Day falls on Sept. 7, which makes the following Friday the second of the month. The league previously clarified this would mean no Week 1 Friday game in 2026.
The NFL will play its first game in Melbourne, Australia, between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in Week 1. With Friday or Saturday scheduling prohibited, that game will be played on Wednesday or Thursday of opening week. Whichever day remains open is when the Seattle Seahawks will host their season opener as the defending champs.
Sunday is not a feasible option for the Melbourne game, given the significant travel distance and turnaround to Week 2. Eastern Time in the U.S. is 14 to 16 hours behind Melbourne time, depending on daylight savings, and travel to Melbourne from the West Coast is about a 15- to 16-hour direct flight. The league is eyeing a start time between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET for the September game, which would be 10:30 or 11 a.m. the next day in Melbourne.
The benefit of hosting the Melbourne game on Wednesday would be giving the 49ers and Rams extra recovery time for Week 2, but it would also change the tradition of the defending Super Bowl champs opening the season. These factors are continuing to be discussed.
This will be the NFL’s fifth Wednesday game since 2012. In 2024, Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday, which placed the Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs-Pittsburgh Steelers in midweek matchups. In 2020, the Ravens and Steelers had to reschedule their Thanksgiving night matchup to a Wednesday afternoon amid a COVID-19 outbreak. And in 2012, the league moved the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants season opener up one day to avoid overlap with then-president Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Before that, the NFL had not hosted a Wednesday game since 1948.
The Melbourne game is the first of a record nine international games in 2026, spanning four continents, seven countries and eight stadiums. The 2026 international slate also features first-time trips to Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
The NFL typically releases its full schedule in May.