The New England Patriots’ 2024 schedule is set.

The Patriots will kick off the 2024 NFL season on the road against the Bengals on Sept. 8. Their home opener is 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 15  against the Seattle Seahawks.

The Patriots are scheduled to play a road game in London this season. New England will play the Jaguars at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 20 at Wembley Stadium. .

This will mark the Patriots’ second straight season with a game in Europe; they lost 10-6 to the Colts in Frankfurt, Germany last November.

The Pats last played in London in 2012, when they blew out the Rams 45-7. That game followed the Patriots’ international debut, a 2009 win over the Buccaneers at Wembley.

The Jaguars host at least one game in London every season, indicating they requested to play the Patriots overseas. The Pats had been scheduled to play a road game at Jacksonville this season.

Advertisement

The Patriots will play home games against the Bills (TBD), Dolphins (Oct. 6), Jets (Oct. 27), Texans (Oct. 13), Colts (Dec. 1), Rams (Nov. 17), Seahawks and Chargers (TBD) and away games against the Bills (Dec. 22), Dolphins (Nov. 24), Jets (Sept. 19), Cardinals (Dec. 15), Jaguars, 49ers (Sept. 29), Titans (Nov. 3), Bengals and Bears (Nov. 10) this season.

• Even though the Super Bowl rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will not occur until almost the midpoint of the season, NFL fans will be treated to a pair of playoff rematches on the opening weekend.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs begin their quest for an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl title when they host the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 5 in the Kickoff Game and the Los Angeles Rams are at the Detroit Lions in the Sunday night game on Sept. 8.

The two playoff rematches on Week 1 are among nine on this year’s regular schedule.

The Ravens-Chiefs matchup is a rematch of last season’s AFC championship game, won by Kansas City 17-10. Kansas City heads to San Francisco in Oct. 20, after it defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 in the second overtime game in Super Bowl history. It also marks the second straight season the Chiefs will have a Super Bowl rematch after they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in a Monday night game last season.

Kansas City will then travel to Buffalo on Nov. 17 in what is becoming a yearly matchup. This will be the fifth straight year the two teams have faced off in the regular season. The Bills have won three straight in the regular season but the Chiefs have won all three in the playoffs.

Advertisement

The Rams’ Matthew Stafford and Detroit’s Jared Goff will face their former teams for the third time, including the playoffs. The Lions won their first playoff game in 32 years when they defeated the Rams 24-23 in an NFC wild-card round game.

Goff recently agreed to a four-year, $212 million contract extension.

The rematch of the NFC championship game between the 49ers and Lions won’t happen until Dec. 30 in San Francisco, which is the last Monday night game of the season.

TELEVISION: Netflix and the NFL announced a three-year deal to stream games on Christmas Day.

The streaming giant will carry two games this year and at least one game in 2025 and ’26. Defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City will face Pittsburgh in the first game, followed by Baltimore at Houston.

The NFL has played a total of 30 games on Christmas Day since 1971, including three last year. It has stayed away from midweek games, though, until this year’s Christmas slate.

Advertisement

The New York Giants are appearing on a new version of “Hard Knocks.”

The Giants, HBO, NFL Films, Skydance Sports announced the team will be the focus of a five-part series that follows GM Joe Schoen and members of the team’s front office through the offseason. It will cover a period from January to July, featuring their work in the NFL combine, free agency, the draft and minicamps.

The show had focused on specific teams during summer training camps and the regular season. The Giants, who are celebrating their 100th season, had never appeared previously.

The series will debut on July 2 and run through the 30th.

DOLPHINS: When Odell Beckham Jr. was asked by a friend a few years ago about the idea of joining the Miami Dolphins, he mildly shrugged off the notion at the time.

But the veteran receiver entered this offseason and began talks with Coach Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins about a possible union, and it didn’t take much convincing this time.

Advertisement

“Off the first meeting, I was just very excited about the opportunity,” Beckham said, speaking for the first time since joining the Dolphins. “I remember getting off the phone with my agent and being like, ‘Yeah, this sounds good. Let’s figure out a way to do it.'”

The Dolphins signed Beckham to a one-year deal earlier this month. McDaniel is the one who sold him, laying out the details of how he’ll be used in Miami’s high-flying offense.

“It kind of reminds me of a place where I had a lot of success at as far as the Giants,” Beckham said, “and timing and all of those things that (McDaniel) talks about and preaches. He was speaking football. We sat down for hours and just talked football.”

Beckham, who quickly rose to NFL stardom after being drafted by the New York Giants in 2014, understands that he’s joining a loaded receiving group where he’ll be quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s third option behind speedy wideouts Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.

CHIEFS: The commencement speaker at Kansas’ Benedictine College, a private Catholic liberal arts school, congratulated the women receiving degrees — and said most of them were probably more excited about getting married and having children.

Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, is getting attention for those and other comments last weekend in which he said some Catholic leaders were “pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America.”

Advertisement

Butker, who’s made his conservative Catholic beliefs well known, also assailed Pride month, a particularly important time for the LGBTQ+ rights movement, and President Joe Biden’s stance on abortion.

“I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker said.

“Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” he said.

Butker said that his wife embraced “one of the most important titles of all. Homemaker.”

He also criticized as disparaging to the Catholic Church an article by The Associated Press highlighting a shift toward conservativism in some parts of the church.

The three-time Super Bowl champion delivered his roughly 20-minute address Saturday at the Catholic private liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, which is located about 60 miles north of Kansas City. He received a standing ovation from graduates and other attendees.

Butler, 28, referred to a “deadly sin sort of pride that has a month dedicated to it” in an oblique reference to Pride month. Butler also took aim at Biden’s policies, including his condemnation of the Supreme Court’s reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and advocacy for freedom of choice — a key campaign issue in the 2024 presidential race.

Butker also tackled Biden’s response to COVID-19, which has killed nearly 1.2 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Chiefs declined to comment on Butker’s commencement address.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.