Patriots to host Chiefs to open 2017 season
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots will open the 2017 NFL season at home against the Kansas City Chiefs, multiple sources have confirmed to ESPN.
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The matchup will be one of the highlights when the league officially releases the entire schedule of games Thursday at 8 p.m. ET. Other Week 1 matchups expected to be announced include:
The New York Giants will face the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas, a source told ESPN's Jordan Ranaan. It will mark the fifth time in six seasons the Giants will have opened against the Cowboys.
The Green Bay Packers will open the season by hosting the Seattle Seahawks at Lambeau Field, sources told ESPN's Adam Caplan and Rob Demovsky.
The Minnesota Vikings will host the New Orleans Saints as part of a Monday Night Football doubleheader on ESPN, sources told ESPN's Ben Goessling and Mike Triplett.
While some speculated that a Super Bowl LI rematch between the Atlanta Falcons and Patriots might be the opener, the NFL has elected to hold that game for a Sunday night in October, sources told ESPN.
The Patriots last hosted the Chiefs in the divisional round of the playoffs following the 2015 regular season. New England posted a 27-20 victory in that game, with tight end Rob Gronkowski's two touchdown receptions helping the Patriots open a 21-6 lead in the third quarter in a game where they weren't truly threatened.
Gronkowski figures to be a big storyline again in the 2017 opener, as he is expected to return from back surgery that sidelined him for the final five regular-season games and the entire playoffs.
Another storyline will be commissioner Roger Goodell's presence at the game. He announced at the league's owners meetings in March that he would attend the season opener. It will mark his first appearance at the Patriots' home stadium since Deflategate and the league's legal fight to uphold a four-game suspension of quarterback Tom Brady.
The more notable prime-time matchup between the teams came on Sept. 29, 2014, when the Chiefs throttled the Patriots 41-14 on ESPN's Monday Night Football.
In the days following that game, after his Patriots had fallen to 2-2, coach Bill Belichick's "on to Cincinnati" mantra became a rallying point for the team and its fans en route to a Super Bowl XLIX victory.
