How to Watch the 2025 NFL Kickoff Game: Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles on NBC & Peacock
Sunday Night Football greets the NFL season with a special Thursday kickoff clash between longtime NFC East rivals.
How’s this for some early-season intrigue to get your NFL anticipation flowing? The very first game of the 2025 NFL regular season features the defending Super Bowl champion squaring off against an old-school divisional rival who’s still making seismic roster moves with only days to spare until kickoff — and it’s all unfolding live on NBC and Peacock.
The Philadelphia Eagles will play host to the Dallas Cowboys on NBC and Peacock to begin the 2025 NFL season, reigniting a historic rivalry that immediately launches both teams right into their respective NFC East divisional races. The game will be broadcast live on Thursday, September 4, ringing in the start of the 2025 regular season with a special Thursday night lead-in presentation of Football Night in America before the Sunday Night Football crew takes over live from Philadelphia.
How can you watch the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles season opener on Thursday night?
The Dallas Cowboys will be on the road to start the season, traveling to Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field where the Eagles will begin their 2025 campaign at home in a special Thursday presentation of Sunday Night Football. The game will air live on NBC and stream in simulcast on Peacock on Thursday, September 4, with kickoff set for 8:20 p.m. ET.
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Dak Prescott #4 of the Dallas Cowboys walks off the field after the NFC Divisional Playoff game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 12, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
The dynamic duo of Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth will be back in the booth to greet the brand new SNF season, with Melissa Stark returning for sideline coverage and Terry McAulauy providing expert rules analysis. The Week 1 matchup also marks a notable SNF milestone: It’s the 17th time that the Cowboys and Eagles will have faced off on Sunday Night Football, the most of any two teams in the 19-year history of prime time television’s No. 1-rated show.
Leading into the SNF broadcast will be Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in all of sports since its 2006 debut. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. on NBC and Peacock, with Maria Taylor, Jason Garrett, Devin McCourty, Chris Simms, Tony Dungy, Rodney Harrison, Mike Florio, Matthew Berry, and Jac Collinsworth all delivering expert news, commentary, and analysis before the game begins.
What to know about the Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles NFL season opener
Photo: Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles drops back to pass against the Kansas City Chiefs during Super Bowl LIX at Caesars Superdome on February 9, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana.Photo: Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Head coach Nick Sirianni and QB Jalen Hurts will lead the Super Bowl LIX-winning Philadelphia Eagles against a Dallas Cowboys squad headed up by coach Brian Schottenheimer and QB Dak Prescott — even as the Cowboys’ defense adjusts to beginning the season without All-Pro DE Micah Parsons.
With only a week to go until the September 4 season opener, the Cowboys rocked the football world by announcing a trade that sends Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Packers DT Kenny Clark, plus a pair of future first-round draft picks. The four-time Pro Bowler and former Defensive Rookie of the Year departs the Cowboys with a cool $188 million, four-year Green Bay contract that makes him the highest-paid non-QB in the history of the NFL.
There’s plenty of skin in the game in the SNF season opener for both the Eagles and the Cowboys — after all, the winner will lay claim to an early spot at the top of the two teams’ shared NFC East division. The Cowboys missed the playoffs and finished last season with a 7-10 record, landing them just above the basement-dwelling New York Giants in the bottom half of the NFC East.
The Eagles, meanwhile, won it all in 2024, ending the regular season with a 14-3 record before embarking on their historic tear through the meat of the playoffs and handing the Kansas City Chiefs a 40-22 thumping in Super Bowl LIX. Philadelphia begins the new NFL season with the core of its title-winning roster intact, while shuffling its backup QB bench in the offseason with the addition of Sam Howell (from the Minnesota Vikings) and gaining key new talent at wide receiver (John Metchie III from the Houston Texans), among other spring and summertime pickups.
