NFL schedule to be released on Thursday night

The NFL's annual schedule release will take place on Thursday, May 14, creating a road map to Super Bowl LXI at Inglewood, Calif.

The league's broadcast partners will be allowed to leak select upcoming matchups during the lead-in to the official release. All of the record nine international games will be revealed on or before Wednesday.

The 2026 season is scheduled to begin on a Wednesday when the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks play host to a yet unnamed opponent on Sept. 9.

The following day, the NFL's first game in Australia will take place when the Los Angeles Rams play host to the San Francisco 49ers at Melbourne. The game will be contested Friday morning Australia time.

There will be three games at London this season, two at the home of the English Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur, while the other takes place at Wembley Stadium. There also will be games played at Paris, France; Mexico City; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Munich, Germany; and Madrid, Spain, in addition to the Australia game.

The schedule release will be broadcast on NFL Network, ESPN 2 and the ESPN app starting at 8 p.m. ET.

The Super Bowl following the 2026 season will take place at SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. The championship matchup is set to be played Feb. 14, 2027, and will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN.

--Field Level Media