NFL to Avoid Friday Night Games in 2025 to Comply with Long-Standing Law
The NFL will not begin its 2025 season with a Friday night game, continuing a practice rooted in a decades-old federal law designed to protect high school and college football. This stems from the Sports Broadcasting Act (SBA), passed by Congress to prevent professional leagues from directly competing with amateur sports for viewership. Traditionally,high school games are held on Fridays,and college games dominate Saturdays,and the SBA aimed to ensure these levels of the sport maintained their own audience.
While the NFL has occasionally circumvented this restriction, it did so by utilizing a loophole related to the Labor Day holiday. For the 2024 season, with Labor Day falling on September 2nd, the league played an international game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers in São paolo, Brazil, on the Friday of that week. All subsequent week 2 games were scheduled for Monday, Thursday, or Sunday.
The league will again utilize this exception in 2025. The season will kick off on Thursday, September 4th, with the defending champion Eagles hosting the Dallas cowboys. though, the Los Angeles Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs will play on Friday, September 5th, in São Paolo, mirroring the 2024 strategy. Week 2 games will again be held on Mondays, Thursdays, or Sundays.
Friday night NFL games are not unprecedented; the first such game occurred on September 18, 1970, with the Los Angeles Rams defeating the st. Louis Cardinals 34-13. Just three days later, the inaugural Monday Night Football broadcast aired on ABC, featuring the Cleveland browns’ victory over the New York Jets, 31-21.The NFL is actively expanding its international presence, with seven games scheduled outside the United States in 2024. These include games in Dublin, Ireland (Minnesota Vikings vs. Pittsburgh Steelers in week 4, Vikings vs. Cleveland Browns in Week 5),London (Denver Broncos vs. New York Jets in Week 6, Rams vs.Jacksonville jaguars in Week 7), Berlin (Atlanta Falcons vs. Indianapolis Colts in Week 10), and Madrid (Washington commanders vs. miami Dolphins in Week 11). The league also returns to São Paolo for a second year.
Looking ahead, the NFL has announced its first regular-season game in Australia, scheduled for the 2026 season at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, featuring the Los Angeles Rams as the home team.
the NFL aims to increase its international slate, with a goal of reaching 10 international games. Achieving this will require further negotiations with the NFL Players’ Association, as outlined in the current collective bargaining agreement. Commissioner Roger Goodell has expressed a long-term vision of a 17-game schedule distributed globally, furthering the league’s international expansion.
