who plays the first nfl game of the season
the New England Patriots the Kansas City Chiefs
title: 2017 NFL season text: 2017 NFL season The 2017 NFL season was the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL). The season began on September 7, 2017, with the Kansas City Chiefs defeating the defending Super Bowl LI champion New England Patriots 42–27 in the NFL Kickoff Game. The season concluded with Super Bowl LII, where the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles faced the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41–33 to win their first title in franchise history. It was also a rematch of Super Bowl XXXIX, title: NFL Kickoff Game text: NFL Kickoff Game The National Football League Kickoff game, along with related festivities, marks the official start of the National Football League (NFL) regular season. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. This first game of the season is usually scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day and since 2004, it was hosted by the defending Super Bowl champions. However, in 2012, the game was moved to Wednesday to prevent conflicts with the acceptance speech of the Democratic National Convention. The remainder of the league plays their opening weekend games the following Sunday and Monday. title: NFL regular season text: NFL regular season The National Football League (NFL) regular season begins on the weekend following the first Monday of September (i.e, the weekend following the Labor Day holiday) and ends in December or early January. It consists of 256 games, where each team (32 total) plays 16 games during a 17-week period. Since 2012, the NFL schedule generally has games in one of five time slots during the week. The first game of the week is played on Thursday night, kicking off at 8:20 PM (ET). The majority of games are played on Sunday, most kicking off at 1:00 PM title: NFL preseason text: San Francisco 49ers played the Baltimore Ravens in 2014, and the Los Angeles Rams played the Baltimore Ravens in 2018, both in Baltimore. The Arizona Cardinals, who are on the pacific time zone during August, have played the New England Patriots in 2006, the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006 and 2009, the Washington Redskins in 2010, and Atlanta Falcons in 2017. The College All-Star Game, usually the first game of the preseason, was played annually in Chicago from 1934 to 1976, and featured the NFL (from 1966, World champion) against an all-rookie team of college all-stars. During the earlier years of title: 2018 NFL season text: 2018 NFL season The 2018 NFL season is the 99th season of the National Football League (NFL). The season began on September 6, 2018, with the NFL Kickoff Game with the defending Super Bowl LII champion Philadelphia Eagles defeating the Atlanta Falcons 18–12. The season will conclude with Super Bowl LIII, the league's championship game, on February 3, 2019, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. The 2018 NFL League year and trading period began on March 14. On March 9, clubs were allowed to exercise options for 2018 on players who have option clauses in their contracts, submit qualifying offers