2 weeks ago
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Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season will begin in a familiar fashion: With the Dallas Cowboys in a prime-time game. The Cowboys will open the regular season with a “Sunday Night Football” matchup against the division-rival New York Giants.
The game will take place on Sept. 13 on NBC and Peacock.
The game should draw massive interest from fans. On the Cowboys’ end, the team remains one of the most popular in the sport. After a middling season, in which the team finished 7-9-1, the Cowboys picked up arguably the best player in the 2026 NFL Draft, trading up for safety Caleb Downs.
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For New York, it will mark the first game of the John Harbaugh era. After 18 seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, Harbaugh parted ways with the franchise in January. It didn’t take long for him to land with the Giants.
The contest also features a feisty division matchup between two storied franchises, so there’s plenty of history to pull from when both teams take the field.
The NFL has yet to full announce its 2026 regular-season schedule. That’s expected Thursday, when every team will unveil their schedules. Until then, the league will slowly roll out select games, including the first “Sunday Night Football” matchup of the season.
The NFL hasn’t revealed many other Week 1 games just yet. The league has announced that the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams will play in Melbourne, Australia at 8:35 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 10 (kickoff Friday at 10:35 a.m. local time to account for American TV time difference), but that’s it for the Week 1 slate so far.
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The biggest question in Week 1 — who the Seattle Seahawks will open against Wednesday — has yet to be revealed. The Cowboys were a candidate for that honor, however. With Dallas out, the Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Chicago Bears seem like the best combination of strong matchup and huge fanbase to open the year against the defending Super Bowl champs.
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