The NFL almost always opens on the Thursday after Labor Day. This year it opens on Wednesday, September 9, with the Patriots at the Seahawks. The reason is Australia, and a broadcast law written in 1961.
The Australia Game Started It
The Rams and 49ers meet at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday, September 11, local time. Because Melbourne is most of a day ahead, that game airs in the United States on Thursday night, September 10, at 8:35 p.m. ET. It is the first regular season NFL game ever played in Australia.
That created the problem. The Kickoff Game and the Australia game would both have landed in the Thursday night window. So the league moved the opener up a day, to Wednesday, and gave each game its own night.
Why Not Just Play the Australia Game on Friday?
Because federal law gets in the way. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 bars the NFL from televising games on Friday nights and Saturdays during the high school football season, a protection that kicks in on the second Friday in September and runs through mid December.
In most years the league solves this by putting its first international game on the Friday after the opener. That was not available in 2026, because Labor Day fell late and the season starts in the second week of September, which puts that Friday inside the protected window. With Friday off the table, the international game moved to Thursday, and the opener moved to Wednesday.
The Last Time This Happened
The 2012 season also opened on a Wednesday, when the Cowboys visited the Giants at MetLife Stadium. That had nothing to do with international games. President Obama was scheduled to give his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on the Thursday, and the league did not want its opener going head to head with it.
So this is the second Wednesday opener of the Super Bowl era, and the first one caused by the NFL’s own schedule rather than an outside event.
Does Anything Change About the Game?
No. It is a normal Week 1 regular season game. The result counts, the statistics count, and the injury report and roster rules work exactly as they would on a Thursday. The season is still 17 games across 18 weeks with one bye per team. The rest of Week 1 runs on its usual schedule, with the full Sunday slate on September 13 and Monday Night Football on September 14.
Will This Keep Happening?
The NFL has a record nine international games in 2026 across seven countries, including first time regular season games in Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Paris. As that number grows and more games land in time zones that push their US broadcast window around, more Wednesday football is plausible. The league has not said it plans to make it a habit.
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The Bottom Line
The NFL is playing on a Wednesday because it wanted a standalone night for its first Australian game, and a 1961 law meant that game could not go on Friday. Kickoff in Seattle is 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC.