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For the second straight year, the NFL is playing a Friday game in Week 1, but that streak won't be continuing in 2026. During a conference call on Tuesday, NFL executive Hans Schroeder confirmed that the league won't be putting a Friday game on the opening week schedule next year. 

In both 2024 and 2025, the NFL was able to exploit a loophole that allowed it to broadcast a Friday game during the first week of the season and the league took advantage of that by putting games in Brazil. The first game came last season when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo. The second game will come on Friday when the Los Angeles Chargers face the Kansas City Chiefs in South America. 

Why the NFL won't be scheduling a Friday night game in 2026

Under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, the NFL isn't allowed to televise any games on Friday or Saturday from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December (Those two days have been earmarked for high school and college football). This is why you don't see any Saturday games on the NFL schedule until late in the season. 

The NFL can schedule a Friday (or Saturday game) during the FIRST weekend of September and that option is available when Labor Day falls on Sept. 1, 2 or 3, which happened in both 2024 and 2025. After this year, the holiday won't fall on one of those three dates again until 2029, so that will likely be the next time we see a Friday game in Week 1. 

If you're wondering why the NFL was able to play a Black Friday game in 2024 -- and will once again be playing one in 2025 -- the league took advantage of another loophole in the broadcasting rules to make that happen. Under the Sports Broadcasting Act, the NFL is ALLOWED to schedule a Friday game as long as a substantial portion of the game is over by 6 p.m. local time. That's why the Black Friday game kicks off at 3 p.m. ET. 

The NFL could theoretically play on Friday at 3 p.m. ET in Week 1, but with most NFL fans at school or work, it just wouldn't make sense to do that. 

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Why Week 1 could have a Wednesday game in 2026

Although a Friday game is off the table for Week 1 of the 2026 season, there could be a rare Wednesday game during the opening week. Over the past 75 years, the NFL has held only held one Wednesday game in Week 1 and that came in 2012 when Cowboys-Giants opener was played on a Wednesday so it wouldn't conflict with Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

In 2026, the Los Angeles Rams will be opening the season in Melbourne, Australia and the NFL is tossing around the idea of playing that game on a Wednesday (or even earlier). 

Due to the lengthy flight and extreme time difference between the United States and Australia, 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 early in the week. 

During an interview back in April, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning, Mike North, revealed that a Wednesday game is one of the possibilities being considered. 

"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," North said. 

Australia has a 14-hour time difference with the Eastern time zone, which would certainly create some logistical issues for the NFL. For a Wednesday night game to happen, it would have to kickoff at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday in Melbourne, which would create an 8:15 p.m. ET kickoff on Wednesday night in the United States. 

The NFL may also be mulling another option, which was hinted at this week by Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer. 

The NFL season used to open on Labor Day weekend, but the league ended that practice in 2000. For the past 24 years, the season has opened on the first weekend after Labor Day. 

If Breer's hunch ends up being correct, the Australia game would give the NFL the perfect excuse to return to Labor Day weekend. The Australian game could be played on Monday morning in Melbourne (Sunday night kickoff) or a Tuesday morning (for a Monday night kickoff) and if the rating go through the roof, the NFL could start a tradition of playing the first game of the season on Labor Day weekend in a far-flung location. 

Although we know the Rams will serve as the home team, we won't know the visiting team in the Australian game until early next year. Their opponent will be one of the nine teams they're scheduled to play at home in 2026 and here's the list of possibilities: Cardinals, 49ers, Seahawks, Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs, Chargers, TBD NFC North team, TBD AFC East team.