For the first time in 14 years, the NFL will open their regular season this year on Wednesday. Mike Macdonald and the Seattle Seahawks appear poised to play in that opener.
The Wall-Street Journal’s Joe Flint reported this week the NFL will host its Melbourne, Australia game on Thursday during Week 1.
“The first game of the regular season will be on Wednesday night on NBC (vs usual Thursday),” Flint wrote on X. “The Melbourne game will be on Thursday — platform TBD.
“NFL can’t do a Friday game this year on opening week, hence the tweaks.”
Puck News’ John Ourand reported in February the NFL planned to hold games on Wednesday and Thursday during 2026 opening week. Ourand also detailed one of those contests would be the Australian game with the other featuring the Super Bowl champions.
But it wasn’t clear until March 17 which game would occur which day.
“With the Australia game now set for Thursday, that means the Seahawks will open the 2026 season on Wednesday at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC,” wrote CBS Sports’ John Breech.
The last time the NFL held a season opener on Wednesday was 2012. That’s the only time it’s happened in the past 75 years.
With that in mind, Breech referred to the potential Seahawks Week 1 2026 opener as “rare.”
“The winner of the Super Bowl generally hosts the Thursday night opener in the following season, but the NFL would make an exception here,” Breech added. “Over the past 75 years, the NFL held only held one Wednesday game in Week 1.
“That came in 2012 when the NFL scheduled the Cowboys vs. Giants in a way to not conflict with Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.”
Potential Seahawks Opponents for ‘Rare’ Wednesday Opener
Pundits expect the official release of the NFL schedule to come in the middle of May. But there have been and will continue to be more schedule leaks, particularly as it relates to the overseas matchups.
The league hasn’t officially announced when the Seahawks will host their 2026 opener. But it’s become a longstanding NFL tradition for the defending champion to open at home on Thursday.
Awful Announcing’s Drew Lerner reported the league can’t schedule a game on Friday in September because of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. The past two seasons, the league has circumvented that law because of the calendar.
“The league has been able to hold Friday games during opening week the past two years due to a quirk in the calendar in which the NFL season began on the first weekend, rather than the second weekend, of September,” wrote Lerner.
Unwilling to miss the opportunity for two weeknight primetime games during opening week, though, the NFL will have games on Wednesday and Thursday. The Seahawks will presumably open Wednesday with the Australian game set for Thursday.
Seattle could host the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs or Los Angeles Chargers in that contest.
More Details on NFL’s First Regular Season Australian Game
The NFL overcomes difficult scheduling and travel arrangements to play games in other countries every year. The league faces its biggest challenge yet with the Australian contest.
Breech explained that if the league has the game kick off at 10 am Friday in Melbourne, then it will start at 8:20 pm Thursday on the east coast.
Two of Seattle’s division rivals, the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, will play in that contest. That’s why they weren’t listed among the potential opponents for Seattle’s Week 1 opener.
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