NFL football is back: 5 things to watch on and off the field

NFL football returns this week, and millions of fans are gearing up to lock in on another season of the country’s most popular pro sports league.

The 2026 campaign arrives at a time when fans are paying more than ever to attend games in person, streaming platforms are becoming the go-to way to watch your favorite team, and gambling has embedded itself as a prominent feature of the weekly game-day experience for many.

Here are five things to watch for this NFL season, both on and off the gridiron.

The NFL is expected to be the largest driver of audiences for any media company with rights to show its games.

An increasing number of the league’s media partners comprises streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon, which are using rights to show top NFL games in primetime and on holidays as a way to drive subscriptions and lure blue-chip advertisers.

How the NFL does business with media companies, however, is raising concern for some in the federal government.

Reports surfaced this summer suggesting the Department of Justice is considering probing the NFL over what critics say is anticompetitive behavior in its dealmaking with major media companies.

This year, it will be more expensive than ever to watch the NFL, with fans who wish to see every game needing to sign up for as many as a half dozen streaming services and paying more than $1,000 for the season to do so.

The rising costs comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill and federal regulators have floated a revamp of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, a law created explicitly with the NFL in mind that grants teams the ability to collectively license the sponsored telecasts of their games to national broadcast networks.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) earlier this year put forth a bill she is calling the For the Fans Act, a law that would regulate how the NFL negotiates and makes its media deals.

“Gigantic streaming services and big sports leagues have created a complicated and expensive maze of subscriptions that either stop fans from watching their teams altogether or gouge fans to simply watch the teams they love,” Baldwin said in introducing the legislation. “It shouldn’t take ten different subscriptions and a second mortgage to watch sports.”

10 years after Kaepernick, league navigates culture wars

It’s been a decade since former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem before games, igniting a national conversation about race, police brutality and the power of political speech in pro sports.

Kaepernick started a social justice movement among NFL players that season and sparked intense social discourse as President Trump ran for the Oval Office in 2016.

It led the league to double down on its efforts to embrace and promote diversity while it also tried to avoid turning off fans angered by the sideline protests.

A league that features only three Black head coaches, the NFL is currently being sued by Brian Flores, a Black coach who alleges the league is not following its self-imposed Rooney Rule, which dictates teams must consider minority head coaches in the hiring process.

The NFL continues to project equality and inclusion as priorities for its workforce, more than 50 percent of which is made up of nonwhite athletes.

The league confirmed it will again allow clubs to stencil phrases like “End Racism” or “Choose Love” in end zones this fall, displays that have irked some conservatives who say they are inherently political and unnecessary.

Kaepernick, who argues he was blacklisted by NFL owners because of his social justice protests, is set to publish a new memoir this month, which could potentially restart debate about the NFL and its place in broader conversations about race relations in the U.S.

The NFL has for years been working to branch out into markets outside of the United States.

The league will hold a record nine games in seven different countries this season, including first-ever games played in cities such as Melbourne, Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

Interest in the NFL remains dwarfed by supporter engagement in global soccer clubs overseas, but many attribute the league’s steadily growing popularity in countries such as England and Germany to the growth of streaming platforms.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has not ruled out the possibility the league could soon add an international team to its ranks, and many have speculated a major European city like London could host a Super Bowl in the coming years.

How well the NFL performs in its international games is something many franchise owners are surely watching closely, and a profitable showing overseas this fall could accelerate the league’s ambitions outside the U.S.

Commanders look to break through ahead of new stadium build

It has been a whirlwind of a few seasons for football fans in Washington, D.C., who saw their home team sold to billionaire Josh Harris and draft one of the NFL’s most dynamic young quarterbacks in Jayden Daniels all within the last five years.

The Commanders, which currently play home games in the nearby Maryland suburbs, are in the midst of a push to construct a new state-of-the-art stadium on the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

Local leaders and the club continue to negotiate how to pay for the new construction project, which is expected to come with a price tag of more than $3 billion.

Major points of contention between the two sides remain, like how to best transport fans to games, the impact the project will have on local businesses and neighborhoods and even what the stadium will be called.

President Trump, who became the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NFL regular season game last fall, has said he would like to see the Commanders’ new home named after him, a suggestion the team has not publicly weighed in on.

With next year’s NFL draft slated to take place on the National Mall, D.C. is starting to set itself apart as a key market for the league.

And it’s a market where the president likes to be seen spotlighting sports, such as the UFC fight at the White House and the IndyCar race through the mall.

The Seattle Seahawks kick off their Super Bowl defense on Wednesday night with a primetime rematch of last year’s title game against the New England Patriots, a showdown set to be broadcast on NBC for an audience of millions.

However, the Seahawks aren’t the only West Coast team expected to be a powerhouse this fall.

The Los Angeles Rams got a major boost this summer when star defensive tackle Aaron Donald announced he was coming out of retirement to rejoin his old squad on a one-year contract.

Donald’s return underscores the Rams’ win-now mindset, and he’ll join star defensive lineman Myles Garrett, another key offseason signing for the Rams along with former Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie, whom the team added to its secondary during the offseason.

Some around the league say Rams general manager Les Snead has constructed one of the team’s best rosters in years, while the club’s billionaire owner, Stan Kroenke, made a splash last week by purchasing the MLB’s Los Angeles Angels, adding to his growing sports portfolio.

This year’s Super Bowl will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., adding an extra incentive for the Rams to go all the way in 2026.

In the AFC, sportsbooks list quarterback Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills and Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens to be favorites to win that conference.

The San Francisco 49ers are also seen as a potential offensive juggernaut in 2026, setting the stage for the NFC West to feasibly send three teams to the playoffs and give itself a solid chance of bringing home another Lombardi Trophy next February.

It has been a wild few days for Los Angeles sports, which saw the MLB’s Angels sold to Kroenke and the Clippers hit with some of the most punishing sanctions in NBA history over a scheme to circumvent the salary cap to acquire Kawhi Leonard in 2024. With the Rams beginning another quest for a Super Bowl this week and the Dodgers trying to set aside questions about the future of the club’s ownership group as they prep for a likely World Series run, sports buzz in Southern California should be at a fever pitch in the coming months.

The Southeastern Conference last week sued Louisiana State University and the school’s head football coach Lane Kiffin over what it alleges was “a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes to play football for LSU during the 2026-27 season.” The suit gets to the heart of issues Congress is trying to address with the Protect College Sports Act. Legendary coach Nick Saban cut a TV ad for the bill that ran during Week 1 of the college football season over Labor Day weekend.

A judge presiding over a lawsuit that seeks to stop the Trump administration’s planned renovation of East Potomac Park and the public golf course there heard arguments from a preservation group that is concerned about recent tree removal on the property. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes indicated she’s not satisfied with arguments on either side of the case and told both government and preservationist group lawyers to rework their cases before she hears it again. Meanwhile, play continues at East Potomac Golf Links while the future of the property remains uncertain.

Jocks on The Hill: Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.)

Rep. Riley Moore, a first-term member of the House and the grandson of former West Virginia Gov. Arch Alfred Moore Jr., answered some sports questions for The Hill.

“Watching now … it’s college football. Absolutely got to be college football.”

“West Virginia Mountaineers. Lifelong fan. I was actually born in Morgantown where the university is. … Last year was a building year, and we just got Rich Rod back. He’s going to do a fantastic job. It’s a really exciting year. If we go above .500, I’m happy.”

Is there an athlete you looked up to growing up?

“I’m going to basically cover every American sport with two guys, Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson.”

Hate is a strong word, but is there a team you love to root against?

“If it was professional football, the Dallas Cowboys. Can’t stand them.”

Why do you think sports brings people together in such politically divided times?

“Sports and football in particular come with so many heroics and just keeps you on the edge of your seat. It’s funny in an era where everyone is watching things on streaming and your kids are like, ‘Can we pause this?’ … no. This is happening right now. It keeps that live action spirit going on.”

This is a pretty charming essay from Jason Brown, who played seven years in the NFL and at one point was the highest-paid center in the NFL. Today, he owns and operates First Fruits Farm in Louisburg, N.C., and writes about how he is “still figuring out ways to grow and reinvent myself.”

Ben Sasse, a former Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, pens a pointed op-ed for The Wall Street Journal advocating for why “American boys need to play football” despite concerns about concussions, arguing it “forms character by harnessing wild masculinity and directing it toward the good and the pure.”

If you have a fantasy football draft this week, you’ll want to check this one out : Sports Illustrated talked to a bunch of NFL executives and coaches who identified “10 breakout stars to watch for” this season.