NFL explains the most controversial decision it made with the 2025 Dallas Cowboys schedule and it makes too much sense
When the NFL announced it would kick off the 2025 regular season with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys, it quickly turned controversial.On the one hand, people understood Cowboys vs. Eagles is one of the best rivalries in the NFL. On the other, people wondered if Dallas, with all of the glaring question marks […]
When the NFL announced it would kick off the 2025 regular season with the Philadelphia Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys, it quickly turned controversial.
On the one hand, people understood Cowboys vs. Eagles is one of the best rivalries in the NFL. On the other, people wondered if Dallas, with all of the glaring question marks surrounding the team, was deserving of getting a shot at the Super Bowl champions in Week 1.
The Cowboys' popularity around the world consistently yields the max amount of primetime games allowed per team (plus a guaranteed matchup in Thanksgiving and for 2025, Christmas Day), which non-Cowboys fans don't love.
But it turns out the league had a clear intention of scheduling Cowboys vs. Eagles as the NFL Kickoff and VP of Broadcast Planning Mike North recently explained it on the Ross Tucker podcast.
"What it came down to, honestly, these last couple of years, it feels like the fans haven't gotten full value really out of Cowboys-Eagles, that's one of the top five games of the year every year when we go into it thinking about these two Cowboys-Eagles games, and so it's usually kind of one early and one late. " North said. Well, these last couple of years, that one late hasn't really panned out the way we'd all hope, whether it was somebody had quarterback injury, or records were a little disappointing, or that way the year where the Eagles had a playoff spot clinched and by the time they got to the Cowboys game."
North also said the NFL looked at the Denver Broncos, Washington Commanders, Detroit Lions, and Los Angeles Rams as potential rivals for Week 1. But the league opted to guarantee some hype in a Cowboys-Eagles game.
"So thinking about getting one of those in early, can't get any earlier than Week 1, both teams undefeated, Dak coming back, new coach, and (Eagles) fans are probably pretty excited about hanging a banner in front of the Cowboys," North added. "So it felt like a really good opportunity and a chance to go really big in maybe a window we don't usually go really big, but I think that's a consistent theme throughout the whole schedule."
The Cowboys are currently seven-point underdogs versus the Eagles, a sign of how much Dallas has to prove before they're considered serious contenders in the NFC.
