The NFL announced that the Green Bay Packers will visit the Chicago Bears on ‘Thursday Night Football’ to kick off the 2019 season, with the NFL’s oldest rivalry matching up to celebrate the league’s 100th season. This will be the 199th meeting between Chicago and Green Bay, and it will be televised nationally on NBC.
Traditionally, the reigning Super Bowl champions host the season-opening kickoff. That’s been a flexible arrangement in the past, though — the Baltimore Ravens risked a scheduling conflict with the neighboring Baltimore Orioles, so they traveled to the Denver Broncos in 2013. So this decision will push the New England Patriots to hosting ‘Sunday Night Football’, which will also be broadcast on NBC. That’s unwelcome news to New Orleans Saints fans, who won’t catch their team on either of the first two big games of the 2019 season. The Saints are not scheduled to play the Patriots until 2021.
There’s a chance that the Saints end up playing the ‘Monday Night Football’ double-header for Week 1, and they have some enticing opponents slated for the upcoming season: home games against the Dallas Cowboys and Indianapolis Colts, and road trips to the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks. Not to mention their heated divisional rivalries with the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers.
What do you think? Who do you want the Saints to start their season against? Do you want them in either of the Monday night games?
