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LOS ANGELES — The NFL announced the Super Bowl LX champion Seattle Seahawks will open the season on the Wednesday of Week 1 instead of hosting the usual Thursday night opener.
The change is being made because the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers will open their season in Melbourne, Australia in a game that will be broadcast on Thursday night in the United States.
The Seahawks will play on NBC at 8:20 p.m. ET. The league has not announced their Week 1 opponent.
The Rams and 49ers will play on Friday morning at 10:35 a.m. local time in Australia, which is 8:35 p.m. ET. The league has not announced a broadcast partner for the game.
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The last time the NFL opened a season on a Wednesday night was in 2012 when a game between the Super Bowl XLVI champion New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys was moved to that day to avoid conflict with then-President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.
The past two seasons, the NFL has played an international game on the Friday after the season opener. In 2024, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers played in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2025, the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs opened their season on Friday in São Paulo.
That is not an option this year because of a provision in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that does not allow broadcasts of professional football games on any Friday or Saturday from the second Friday in September through the second Saturday in December. The last two seasons, the day after the season opener fell on the first Friday of September.
The game in Melbourne will be the first regular-season NFL game played in Australia. The Rams were announced as the host team in February 2024, and the 49ers were announced as their opponent last month. The teams will play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
The game is one of an NFL-record nine international games scheduled for the 2026 season. The 49ers will also be the home team for a game at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City this coming season.
