There won’t be a Week 1 game on Friday night on the NFL schedule next season because the federal government won’t allow them.
During a conference call with reporters, NFL executive vice president and COO Hans Schroeder confirmed that the league cannot legally open its season in Week 1 by playing a game on the Friday.
The reason is due to an antitrust provision in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 that bans broadcasts of professional football by any station within 75 miles of a high school or college football game. It specifies that pro games cannot run on any Friday or Saturday from the second Friday in September through the second Saturday in December.
This was not a problem for the NFL this year or last year. The league likes to begin its season on the first Thursday after Labor Day and because the holiday has fallen so early in the calendar, the NFL has been able to broadcast Friday night games during the first week of the month of September.
In 2026, however, Labor Day isn’t until Sept. 7. That puts the following Thursday in the second week of the month. Since the SBA blackout begins the second Friday of September, it would be illegal to broadcast that night.
Congress passed the SBA to help insulate high school and college football from facing direct pressure from professional games.
High school football games traditionally happen on Fridays, while college games dominate Saturday sports schedules. So, the logic went, if a pro league ran games at the same time as the sport’s other levels, it would rob them of the chance to compete as their own products.
All indications are that the NFL wants to continue to host games in Brazil, it just won’t be in Week 1 on a Friday night in 2026.
