Chiefs will open season against Texans
The Kansas City Chiefs will open defense of their Super Bowl championship by hosting Houston on Sept. 10 in the NFL's annual kickoff game – pending developments in the coronavirus pandemic, of course.
The Texans won a regular-season game at Arrowhead Stadium in 2019, then blew a 24-0 lead in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Another highlight of the opening weekend will have Tom Brady’s regular-season debut with Tampa Bay against Drew Brees at New Orleans on Sept. 13 – the first matchup of 40-plus quarterbacks in NFL history.
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas will debut on the Monday night, Sept. 21, with the Raiders facing Brady and the Buccaneers.
All of the 32 teams released their schedules early Thursday evening, with the full 2020 list scheduled to be revealed by the league a bit later.
The Chiefs, who won their first Super Bowl in a half-century last February, need baseball's Royals to move their game for Sept. 10, which now is part of a doubleheader two days earlier. The teams' stadiums share parking lots.
The NFL schedule, not to mention offseason activities and the preseason, has to be considered tentative given the current prohibition on large gatherings.
But Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league is planning for a normal season, albeit while making contingency plans.
Baltimore’s Thomas threatened by wife: The lawyer for the wife of Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas said she is being subjected to an “unfounded ongoing investigation” by Texas police after she allegedly pointed a gun at her husband's head upon finding him in bed with another woman last month.
According to a police affidavit, Nina Thomas tracked down her husband at a short-term rental home in Austin in the early morning hours of April 13 and found him and his brother, Seth, in bed with two women.
The affidavit says Nina Thomas admitted to pointing the pistol at Earl Thomas' head “with the intent to scare him.” She had taken the magazine out of the gun and disengaged the safety, but police noted “she was unaware the gun had a round in the chamber.”
Nina Thomas struck Earl Thomas repeatedly with her free hand before her husband eventually wrestled the 9 mm Beretta from her grasp, the affidavit said. At that point, he told the woman with whom he was romantically linked to call the police.
Nina Thomas was arrested on a felony charge of burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.