When Does The 2020 NFL Season Start? Preseason Games Expected To Be Canceled

The NFL is hoping to play the 2020 season during the coronavirus pandemic, but games might not start until later than usual. The league has reportedly offered the NFL Players Association the option to eliminate the preseason completely.

The NFLPA is expected to accept the proposal. The regular season is scheduled to start on Thursday, Sept. 10 when the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans. Most of the teams will kick off their season on Sunday, Sept. 13.

Rookies for the Chiefs and Texans reported to training camp Monday. First-year players for the rest of the league are set to start showing up Tuesday.

The Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers were originally supposed to meet in the season’s first contest in the annual Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio on Aug. 8 The league canceled the game on June 25 because of coronavirus concerns.

On July 1, it was reported that the NFL decided to scrap the first two weeks of the preseason. Week 1 of the preseason had been set to start on Aug. 13.

Preseason Week 3 is scheduled to begin on Aug. 27 with four games. It might only be a matter of time before those matchups are officially canceled.

“To engage in two games where players would be flying all over the country and then engaging with each other to work, and to do that prior to the season, doesn’t increase the likelihood of starting and finishing the season on time,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said on a Pro Football Writers of America conference call Friday, via ProFootballTalk.

If the preseason is done away with completely, there will be more than seven months between NFL games. Kansas City defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2.