NFL executive: Kansas City Chiefs nearly opened the season against an AFC West rival
There were a number of people who thought the NFL would follow its 2023 blueprint when it came to picking the Chiefs’ opponent for the Kickoff Game.
A year ago, the NFL surprised some by choosing the Detroit Lions for the opening game of 2023. The Lions had finished the previous season strong, and they were rewarded with the Kickoff Game.
The Houston Texans ended last season on a roll, advancing to an AFC Divisional playoff game. Houston seemed like a prime candidate to face the Chiefs in the first contest of 2024.
Instead the Baltimore Ravens were chosen to be the Chiefs’ foe in the NFL Kickoff Game.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, said on the SI Media With Jimmy Trania podcast that the league strongly considered the Texans. But the NFL instead put the Chiefs and Texans in separate Christmas Day games.
“There was a long time where we were thinking about Houston-Kansas City, kind of that same mentality (as the Lions),” North said. “But once we started trying to solve for this Christmas Wednesday in this round robin, how difficult that was going to be finding four teams that all played each other, one home, one road, can anchor for national windows, that’s where Houston and Kansas City ended up. So there goes Houston off the table. We use Vegas-Kansas City on Black Friday, you know, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Baltimore. They were all going to be great.
“The one that was probably closest to getting played other than Baltimore was the Chargers. I think it would have been a fun way to have coach (Jim) Harbaugh. It’d be interesting to see him going into Arrowhead and trying to get a W there. But instead, we ended up with a Chargers home game (in Week 1). We had some constraints around SoFi. I think there’s a Green Day concert in there, so we had to have either the Rams or Chargers home in Week 1 so they both didn’t start with two consecutive road games. We ended up putting the Rams at Detroit.
“So you kind of came back around to a game like Baltimore-Kansas City.”
Two things to note: Harbaugh was hired by the Chargers earlier this year and Green Day is indeed playing a concert on Sept. 14 at SoFi Stadium.
Having the Chiefs face the Ravens in a rematch of the AFC Championship Game wasn’t the worst possible thing for the league, of course.
North said fans who watch the Summer Olympics in Paris on NBC likely will see commercials with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Chiefs.
“Baltimore-Kansas City, that’s something we can all look forward to for the next what, four months?” North said. “And it starts really another historic weekend in the NFL. You think about Thursday for kickoff on NBC. They’re coming out of the Olympics, so they’re gonna be promoting it the whole month of August.”
