The first coordinated schedule leak of the week promotes a big time matchup between two of the NFL’s most iconic brands.
On Monday morning, the NFL announced the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants will face off during the first Sunday Night Football game of the year on NBC. The game will kickoff at the standard time of 8:20 p.m. ET on September 13.
.@dallascowboys vs. @Giants on the first @SNFonNBC of the 2026 season 🔥
📺: NFL Schedule Release – Thursday at 8pm ET on @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/ZliiBKJgTZ
— NFL (@NFL) May 11, 2026
The announcement comes ahead of the full schedule release later this week, and will surely be the first of many strategic leaks across every NFL partner as broadcasters head into Upfront week, a time when much of their NFL ad inventory will be sold to advertisers. NBC’s Upfront begins on Monday morning, and Cowboys-Giants will surely be a centerpiece of that presentation.
As usual, NBC will also broadcast the NFL Kickoff game during Thursday of Week 1. That game, which will feature the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks, has not yet been announced. However, with the Giants playing on Sunday night during Week 1, there is one fewer home opponent left on the Seahawks’ schedule to choose from.
One wrinkle to Week 1 this season will be the NFL’s first-ever game from Australia, which is set to be played on a Wednesday and feature the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers. That game is reportedly headed to Netflix, though there has not yet been an official announcement.
As for the Sunday Night Football opener, NBC has to be quite pleased. Despite a lack of recent success, the Cowboys are still a ratings darling. And the new-look Giants, with emerging star Jaxson Dart at quarterback and new head coach John Harbaugh, are a team that all NFL fans are interested to check out early this upcoming season.
It will be difficult to follow the quality of last year’s first Sunday Night Football game, when the Buffalo Bills staged a late fourth-quarter comeback to beat the Baltimore Ravens 41-40, but you can’t ask for much better than the Cowboys and Giants if you’re NBC.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.