a rematch of Super Bowl XVIII. Three weeks later, the New York Giants faced the Denver Broncos, in a rematch of Super Bowl XXI. Then, as previously mentioned, a week later, the Atlanta Falcons went to New England and faced the defending champions New England Patriots, in a rematch of Super Bowl LI. Then in Week 12, the Green Bay Packers faced the Pittsburgh Steelers in a rematch of Super Bowl XLV, in what was supposed to be a quarterback battle between Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger, that turned into a quarterback battle between Roethlisberger and Brett Hundley due to Rodgers suffering a broken collarbone in Week 6 that ruled him out for all but one game the rest of the season. And on NBC's broadcast of Super Bowl LII, the Philadelphia Eagles faced the New England Patriots in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX. 2018 The 2018 NFL season schedule was released in April. NBC's first telecast of the season was on September 6, 2018 featured the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Atlanta Falcons. For the ninth season in a row, the NFL placed a game against a World Series game, with the (New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings), going up against the fifth (and final) game of the Fall Classic, between the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Boston Red Sox. This was also the first season since 2015, that TNF was not on NBC, as it moved to fellow NFL broadcaster Fox for the next five years. Despite the loss of TNF, NBC still broadcasts the Kickoff Game and the Thanksgiving prime time games (both on a Thursday night) as they fall under the current NBC contract. This marked the seventh year in the Sunday night package that a prime time Thanksgiving game was shown on NBC which featured the Atlanta Falcons against the New Orleans Saints. However, the studio team of Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy and Rodney Harrison called the game in place of Michaels and Collinsworth. Flexible scheduling rules went into effect Week 5. If a more compelling matchup arose as the season progressed, the previously scheduled Sunday night matchup could have been swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. This occurred several times during the season: On October 9, NBC and the league announced that the previously scheduled Rams-49ers match-up was moved to a 4:25 p.m. ET start time on CBS, and