The NFL has announced that the 2025 regular-season opener will feature a marquee NFC East showdown, as the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will host the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night, September 4, at Lincoln Financial Field. The primetime matchup, which will air on NBC, sets the stage for one of football’s fiercest rivalries to kick off the new season.
This marks the first time since 2000 that the Eagles and Cowboys will meet in Week 1. That game, played on September 3 at Texas Stadium, saw Andy Reid’s Eagles dominate with a 41-14 victory — a distant memory in NFL terms. None of the 19 players selected by either team in the 2025 NFL Draft was even born at the time of that previous season opener, according to ESPN Research.
The matchup will also serve as the regular-season debut for new Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who took the reins after Mike McCarthy’s departure. Schottenheimer inherits a talented Dallas squad seeking redemption after being swept by the Eagles in their two meetings last season.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, returns as defending champions with momentum and continuity. Their 2024 dominance included a pair of convincing wins over Dallas and a Super Bowl victory that has solidified head coach Nick Sirianni’s status among the league’s elite.
The NFL has made a tradition of opening the season with a Thursday night game since 2002, usually featuring the reigning Super Bowl champion as the home team. This year’s opener will mark just the fourth time an intra-division rivalry has been chosen for the prestigious slot — a testament to the magnitude and marketability of Eagles vs. Cowboys.
The full 2025 NFL schedule will be revealed Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, with a schedule release special airing on ESPN2. But fans of both teams now have a high-stakes date circled on their calendars: September 4, under the lights, where a new chapter in this storied rivalry will be written.
