The 2026 NFL season opener in Seattle is still a mystery, but Sunday Night Football will begin with a bang.
NBC Sports announced Monday morning on Today that its first SNF game on Sept. 13 will feature the Cowboys and Giants from MetLife Stadium. The primetime broadcast will feature a Dallas team that, despite up-and-down performance on the field in recent years, remains one of the league’s top television draws, and a New York team that just hired John Harbaugh as its new head coach.
The unveiling was the start of a series of announcements planned over the next several days of key games involving each of the NFL’s main domestic media rights holders.
Those reveals—often incorporating network upfront presentations in New York—will culminate with the release of the full 2026 regular season schedule Thursday night. That slate will feature a series of notable changes from last year, including the likely introduction of a Thanksgiving Eve game and a heightened presence for streamers such as Netflix and YouTube.
The NFL’s focus on maximizing the audience for every one of its 272 regular season games also arrives as the league is looking to build on its 10% viewership growth in 2025. The kickoff game, as a result, is a key part of setting an early tone toward that goal.
