The reigning Super Bowl champion usually hosts the opening game of the NFL season, but that might not be happening in 2026.
With the NFL set to play a regular-season game in Australia for the first time ever next year, it looks like the league wants to make sure that game takes center stage on the NFL schedule. During a Friday interview on “The Pat McAfee Show,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell revealed that the league is planning to “start” the season in Australia.
“We’re starting the season off over there next year,” Goodell said.
The Los Angeles Rams will serve as the home team for the historical game, which will be played in Melbourne. The visiting team won’t be announced until after the 2025 season. Australia has a 14-hour time difference with the Eastern time zone, which will certainly create some logistical issues for the NFL.
The NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, Mike North, explained the problem during a recent interview on the “It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo” podcast.
The way I understand it is, to play in prime time, here in the states on the East Coast, you’re actually playing the following morning [in Australia] local time,” North said. “Something like 10:15 a.m. kickoff [in Australia] for an 8:15 p.m. kickoff the night before here in the states.”
Here’s an example of what North is saying: If a game kicks off at 10:15 a.m. in Melbourne on a Friday, that would be an 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff on Thursday night in the United States.
Due to the lengthy flight and extreme time difference, the NFL wants to make sure that both teams have enough time to get ready for their Week 2 game, so the plan would be to play the Week 1 Australia game on a Thursday or maybe even a Wednesday.
“Because it is Week 1, you know they’re playing again in Week 2, so you don’t want to shorten that week,” North said. “I suspect it will probably be early in the week, more like a Thursday, maybe even a Wednesday, that’s a possibility that we’ve discussed.”
If the Wednesday game does happen, it would be just the second time in 75 years that the NFL has held a Week 1 game on a Wednesday. The only other instance came in 2012 when the Cowboys-Giants opener was played on a Wednesday so it wouldn’t conflict with Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.
With the Rams serving as the home team, that means that their opponent will be one of the nine teams they’re scheduled to play at home in 2026 (Cardinals, 49ers, Seahawks, Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers, TBD NFC North team, TBD AFC East team).
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