The 2017 NFL season schedule is being released on Thursday, April 20. So when does the regular season start this year?
The NFL makes a big deal out of everything as it should. It is the most popular and most profitable professional sports league in the United States of America. The games are fun, but we love everything about the NFL, especially when next year’s schedule comes out.
We’ve known since Week 17 of the 2016 NFL season the 256 regular season matchups that will be on display. Since that early January day, we’ve also known the home and away games for all 32 franchises. The order of these games however, well, that’s decided on Thursday, April 20 at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Throughout the day Thursday, random games have been leaked by various media sources about when certain teams are playing certain teams in certain games. Just hold on a second. Do we even know when the season is going to start?
We do know. Week 1 will begin on Thursday, Sept. 7 when the defending Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots will host the Kansas City Chiefs on a Thursday night version of Sunday Night Football at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
The other 30 NFL teams will play their first game of 2017 either on Sunday, Sep. 10 or Monday, Sept. 11. Usually the NFL has two Monday Night Football games on the Week 1 slate, with an early kickoff on the East Coast and a late kickoff on the West Coast.
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The order of the 16-game slate is most crucial for many teams’ chances at reaching the playoffs. A tough draw in the September part could knock a team into a hole that it cannot crawl out of. However, an easy September could lead to an on-the-rise team picking up momentum and having one of those special years we’ve all come to love over the years.