For the first time, NFL Network will air United Football League games.
As noted by Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, NFL Network will televise at least two UFL games during the 2026 season, marking the first time the NFL’s own network — which soon transitions under ESPN’s operational umbrella following the equity deal that closed in February — will carry spring football. So, this technically represents the first time ESPN-affiliated programming being distributed through NFL Network.
In an announcement detailing scheduling changes to the Houston Gamblers’ home slate, it was revealed that the Gamblers’ home opener against the Birmingham Stallions on Sunday, April 5, was shifted from a noon ET start to 6 p.m. ET, and that change in kickoff time triggered a broadcast shift from ESPN2 to NFL Network. Additionally, the UFL’s first-ever Thursday night game, scheduled for April 16, has moved from ESPN+ to NFL Network.
The UFL’s existing broadcast setup already covers all 43 games across Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, and the ESPN App, with Fox carrying 21 games and the ESPN family carrying 22. ESPN announced its broadcast teams for the 2026 season last month, returning all 13 voices from last season with Joe Tessitore and Jordan Rodgers leading the top booth. NFL Network slots into that infrastructure as an additional distribution point — one that, given its core NFL audience — could theoretically reach a more engaged football viewer than the general sports fan the league has been struggling to hold onto at Fox and ESPN.
The league’s second season averaged 645,000 viewers per telecast, down 20 percent from its first year, with Fox’s Friday night windows averaging just 608,000 viewers — well below the WWE programming those slots previously carried. The league, under commissioner Mike Repole, has been pushing hard on the market-engagement side, relocating to Columbus, Louisville, and Orlando for 2026 and experimenting with rule changes, including a four-point field goal and a tush-push ban.
Whether NFL Network’s audience — built over two decades around the one sport the UFL is trying to leverage — proves more receptive to spring football than the casual viewer who has been drifting away on Fox and ESPN remains to be seen.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.