The day has finally arrived.
After months and months of sitting on our hands waiting for the NFL to return, the first action of the 2026 season takes the field tonight when the Seattle Seahawks begin their title defense against the New England Patriots in a rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. It’s such a glorious feeling to have this sport back in our lives, especially because a full NFL slate is arguably one of the greatest things since sliced bread. There are few things better than waking up on a Sunday morning knowing you have roughly 11 consecutive hours of football ahead of you, most of which you will spend convincing yourself to care deeply about games that have absolutely nothing to do with your favorite team. Fantasy football will do that to you.
Wait, I’m just now receiving word that the season is beginning on a Wednesday.
Yeah, that’s not cool.
Set aside my thoughts on the NFL’s continued encroachment on every single day of the week — pretty soon we’re going to have Tuesday Night Football on Tubi — and there is nothing like watching this league. While college football will always hold a special place in my heart for its wacky, silly vibe, the NFL provides us with something much cleaner. It’s just good old-fashioned American football at its finest, played by the best players in the world and with enough parity that just about every game can turn into an absolute classic.
Any given Sunday, after all.
There are favorites, obviously. The Seahawks are defending champions after Sam Darnold completed one of the strangest career arcs in recent NFL history, going from failed Jets quarterback to reclamation project to legitimately good starter to Super Bowl champion. Now comes an equally interesting question: Can he do it again?
Of course, the Seahawks and Darnold might not even be the most interesting team in their own division. The Los Angeles Rams spent the offseason behaving like I do when I turn off the salary cap in Madden, adding Myles Garrett to a team that already had a glut of stars like Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua, and that was before Aaron Donald apparently got bored with retirement and decided he wanted back in. This roster is, frankly, absurd, and everybody knows it.
Then there’s Buffalo, where we have once again reached the annual tradition of wondering whether it’s finally the Bills’ time to shine. Josh Allen is too good to spend his entire career in purgatory, but that’s increasingly the direction we’re headed unless the Bills can finally finish the job. At some point, someday has to become today, and Buffalo has reached the stage where another really good regular season followed by a handshake in January isn’t going to feel particularly satisfying.
There’s obviously so much more. Drake Maye just helped New England reach the Super Bowl, but a tumultuous offseason for the organization — paired with the fact that the Patriots were labeled “schedule merchants” — now leaves some doubt that the feat will be repeatable. Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are coming off the kind of season that would certainly qualify as a crisis. The question now becomes whether it’s possible for the operation to bounce back or if this part of the Chiefs’ story has run its course. Caleb Williams and the Bears are fascinating — I have a love affair with Ben Johnson’s offense — the Broncos were a Bo Nix injury away from potentially reaching the Super Bowl last season, and Aaron Rodgers is still playing professional football because apparently Father Time has decided to stop answering his calls.
There will be others. There always are. That’s just the NFL. Starting tonight, we get all of it back.
For the next five months, Sundays are an event again. Really, the entire weekend is an event. There’s some sort of football on every day of the week. Depending on your view on life, that’s either the greatest thing in the world or a calamity that will end civilization.
Either way, I’m of the opinion that we’ve officially entered the best time of the year.