NFL chooses potential MVP showdown to open the 2024 schedule

I mean, who else was it going to be? With the Kansas City Chiefs repeating as Super Bowl champions, they earned the right to kick off the ensuing NFL season. It is a tradition as old as time, or as old as NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decided to make it a thing now. So this is a thing now?! You betcha! So with Kansas City kicking off Week 1 on Sept. 5 on a Thursday night, who will be coming to town?

That would be the defending AFC North champion Baltimore Ravens, a team which lost at home to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game last year. This was the furthest two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson has gotten to the Super Bowl, while Mahomes just played in his fourth in five years, hoisting his third Lombardi Trophy to date. Is this the new rivalry the NFL has been looking for? Just you wait...

This was the matchup the NFL needed to start the season. The league needed a clash of AFC titans featuring two teams who have realistic shots at getting to Super Bowl 59 down in New Orleans next February. For the time being, the Chiefs and the Ravens are playoff locks in the AFC. While there are other good teams in that conference, they only other team that might be a lock would be ... Buffalo?

It may be more than three months out, but you better have your popcorn ready for this Sept. 5 game.

I love the idea of the Super Bowl champion kicking off the following season, but this is getting stale...

Kansas City Chiefs to host Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night in Week 1

If you read between the lines, my previous statement is all about the Chiefs winning all the time. While I totally agree the following NFL season should start on a Thursday night Week 1 at the defending champion's place with a terrific made-for-television matchup, can somebody else win the Super Bowl? This is a feat all 32 franchises should be striving for, but only about eight a year have a chance.

What I like about the NFL going to the defending Super Bowl champion's stadium is it should generate more excitement and buzz lead-wide than just having them open on a Sunday afternoon, 1:00 p.m. local time. Of course, we would like to see a bit more variance in these champions. Since any franchise can win a Super Bowl, all 32 should be able to be in a discussion for it on occasion.

See, until all 32 franchises either play inside a dome or play outdoors in a mild winter climate, we are never going to see Super Bowls be played at every spot. It is why there will never be a Super Bowl in Kansas City. Yes, you can hold the an NFL Draft there, which we should give Goodell a ton of credit for in helping bring that to light for cities like Kansas City that will never be in the Super Bowl rotation.

For now, we must make due with seeing yet another NFL season begin in earnest in Kansas City.