NFL News OT: Report: Seahawks will kickoff season on Wednesday, Sept. 9

patfanken said:

Yes, it IS an unfair advantage to be coming off a bye, but it is one that EVERY team gets over the course of a season, so I don't see it as being that onerous. The Wednesday game to start the season only aids 2 teams.

As to the sloppy play, because of the joke that preseason practices have become the entire month of September is rife with bad football because the players simply are not prepared. I also think that is why there are so many injuries. All those 2 a days in full pads builds a kind of protective layer around a player. Back in the day, we would have 16 to 18 full pad practices in the first 2 weeks of camp. Now I doubt they have a dozen full pad practices the entire preseason.

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What about teams that already have Thursday games and thus a rest advantage for their next game? Same with Monday night games.

I get that an extra 1, 2, or 3 days and of course a bye ahead of a game is an advantage, but 2 NFL teams having one extra day of rest before their week 2 game just isn't a big competitive issue IMO. Heck, without the full schedule you can't even say whether those two teams will be overall advantaged or disadvantaged on the rest front. They could end up playing multiple teams coming off Thursday games the week prior or play some MNF games themselves and thus be down 1 day of rest multiple times later on.

If it was purely about competition you'd have every single team play Sunday at the exact same time so every team has the exact same amount of time between games. We all know that won't work in a league that needs to market itself to profit though.

TheRainMaker said:

Why did players even agree to play overseas? Will the NFL going going on a world tour?

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Because the NFLPA is the weakest union in sports... as a proud union member myself it's pathetic what they allow the NFL to do..

JoeSixPat said:

It wouldn't take a stretch to imagine that the NFL might want to have the Patriots and Seahawks kickoff the season in a Super Bowl rematch since the Pats will be playing at Seattle at some point this season anyway

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It’s very realistic when you consider that their top 2 rivals, Rams and 49ers, are the Melbourne teams playing the next night.

IMHO the Rams would have otherwise been the likeliest candidate. But now…? I see only 4 potential draws: Dallas, Chicago, KC and NE….. and selecting KC is risky since Mahomes may not be back week 1….. so I honestly think it’s down to us or Dallas or Chicago.

JFC, wednesday football? enough is enough

XLIX said:

It’s very realistic when you consider that their top 2 rivals, Rams and 49ers, are the Melbourne teams playing the next night.

IMHO the Rams would have otherwise been the likeliest candidate. But now…? I see only 4 potential draws: Dallas, Chicago, KC and NE….. and selecting KC is risky since Mahomes may not be back week 1….. so I honestly think it’s down to us or Dallas or Chicago.

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Well, some seem to have the theory that Goodell goes out of his way NOT to find a draw - because it's the first game and they think people will watch no matter what. So don't waste a good match up for the first game because that's a waste.

But I seem to recall that they've actually kicked off the season with Conference championship rematches from the previous year playoffs

I seem to recall that they've even had the Pats in a rematch with the Falcons in the first game following the Super Bowl - and I think the Broncos and Seahawks have also had Super Bowl rematches in their first games of the season in the 2010s too - but maybe those WERE deemed the lamest games on the schedule so they figured, just put them in the first game of the season since people will watch no matter what?

If the lamest team is the choice then I'd say it's Arizona and Chicago - or maybe KC if they are thinking Mahomes WON'T be available.

But I would think that the Patriots would be a top choice IF ratings are important to the NFL

TheRainMaker said:

Why did players even agree to play overseas? Will the NFL going going on a world tour?

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international games have been going on for a long time now... its been happening since the late 70's (not counting Americas Hat or Americas Diaper)... used to be just the exhibition games that were sent overseas though, so people really didn't pay attention...

JoeSixPat said:

Well, some seem to have the theory that Goodell goes out of his way NOT to find a draw - because it's the first game and they think people will watch no matter what.

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Anyone who subscribes to that theory is ignorant of history. In the past 10 years, we had:

2016: Broncos host Panthers (Super Bowl rematch)
2017: Patriots host Chiefs (a divisional round team the prior year)
2018: Eagles host Falcons (a divisional round rematch)
2019: Packers-Bears this is the year they screeed us but GB-Chi is still a marquee matchup
2020: Chiefs host Texans (a divisional round rematch)
2021: Bucs host Cowboys (the Cowboys may suck but they are a huge draw)
2022: Rams host Bills (a divisional round team the prior year)
2023: Chiefs host Lions
2024: Chiefs host Ravens (CCG rematch)
2025: Eagles host Cowboys (see 2021)

So they overwhelmingly take teams from the playoff the prior year (or Dallas). Hence my prediction that it’ll be Chicago, NE or Dallas…. With Dallas being a longshot since that’s two years in a row for them….

JoeSixPat said:

Well, some seem to have the theory that Goodell goes out of his way NOT to find a draw - because it's the first game and they think people will watch no matter what. So don't waste a good match up for the first game because that's a waste.

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I never said Goodell goes out of his way to NOT find a draw. I said it's dumb to waste a good matchup for week 1 of the season - in this case a Super Bowl rematch. It was dumb when they open up the year with title game matchups from the prior years such as Pittsburgh at NE in 2002, Indy at NE in 2004 and later Chiefs and Ravens. Opening up against Oakland in 2005 was a relief saving the MNF game later against Indy as it should be.

History shows it will be a playoff team from the prior season which it will most likely be Chicago. It wouldn't shock me if it was NE, but it would be idiotic to do when it should be a mid season primetime game. Packers were at NE in week 9 of the NFL season on MNF as it should be.

TheRainMaker said:

I never said Goodell goes out of his way to NOT find a draw. I said it's dumb to waste a good matchup for week 1 of the season

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The NFL wants to come out of the gate strong with fantastic ratings.... and yes, while those of us in this forum will be watching no matter what, the simple fact is that some teams will produce significantly higher ratings than others.

Sea-Dal, Sea-Chi, Sea-NE will all do much, much better than Sea-AZ or Sea-KC (without Mahomes).

Pat the Pats Fan said:

So four prime time games in the first week, sheesh, a little over saturated!

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AKA....Diminishing return on utility

XLIX said:

The NFL wants to come out of the gate strong with fantastic ratings.... and yes, while those of us in this forum will be watching no matter what, the simple fact is that some teams will produce significantly higher ratings than others.

Sea-Dal, Sea-Chi, Sea-NE will all do much, much better than Sea-AZ or Sea-KC (without Mahomes).

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Dallas at Seattle wouldn't shock me because no matter how bad Dallas is - they are "America's Team". I would've put KC in the mix if Mahomes was healthy. I'm taking Dallas or Chicago to open at Seattle.

Hugepatsfan said:

How will this make you watch less? All they're doing with this is pulling one additional game out of Sunday, which fans already dedicate to football, and playing it another day. I don't see how it'd make you watch less to take one game out of the Sunday 1PM or 4PM windows to put it on a Wednesday. Even if you don't watch that Wednesday, you're still watching Sunday.

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As a shift worker, I'm working that WHOLE freaking weekend so I would LOVE if they play on that Wednesday (Not working that day). I'm worried I'll miss the game if they play on 13Sep26!