The NFL may use its first-ever game in Brazil to drastically alter its season-opening kickoff weekend in a move away from the league’s typical process for international matchups.
After deciding to play a regular-season game in São Paulo next year, the NFL is now exploring playing that contest in Week 1 of the 2024 season, according to NBC Sports. Reported options are said to include a doubleheader on Thursday, Sept. 5 (when the defending Super Bowl champions have traditionally kicked off the season at home) and a standalone game on Friday, Sept. 6. Each scenario would be a first for the NFL, which has only played one game on the Thursday of Week 1 — called the NFL Kickoff Game — since starting the tradition in 2002.
There has never been a Friday game during Week 1, but the league did play on Black Friday this year and has been continuously moving into other new game windows, such as Christmas Day and the now-standard 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday morning window for its International Series, recently played in London and Germany. The earliest a regular-season game has been played in Europe is Week 3.
Dolphins A Lock?
The Miami Dolphins are widely believed to be a strong candidate to play in Brazil, given that they are the only NFL team with marketing rights in the country as part of the league’s international marketing program. But next season NFC teams will have a ninth regular-season home game, and they are likely to host international matchups.
Those teams have some say in who they host internationally, and they could be wary of giving up their home game to host the Dolphins (given their marketing rights), who conversely could volunteer to give up one of their eight home games if they desperately wanted to play in Brazil in 2024.
