Bills at Super Bowl champs will kick off 2022 NFL season
The National Football League’s 103rd season will kick off at the same place where the last season ended — SoFi Stadium — with the Los Angeles Rams beginning defence of their Super Bowl 56 crown against the Buffalo Bills in a nationally televised showcase Sept. 8.
The Thursday game will be broadcast on NBC, with an 8:20 p.m. ET kickoff.
Maybe it’s a preview of Super Bowl 57 as Buffalo, led by star quarterback Josh Allen, again looms as one of the heavyweight favourites in the AFC.
Of course, the Rams are still rather formidable in their own right, with star defensive tackle Aaron Donald and QB Matthew Stafford back as key cogs for a team that will seek to become the NFL’s first repeat Super Bowl champion since the New England Patriots in 2005.
It’s fitting that Buffalo kicks off the new season, as so many felt the Bills were robbed by an NFL rule of the opportunity to extend their last game — an overtime loss against the Kansas City Chiefs in a 42-36 thriller at Arrowhead Stadium.
That Allen and the prolific Bills’ offence never had a possession in overtime before losing on a Patrick Mahomes-led walk-off touchdown drive fuelled such an outrage the NFL felt obliged to tweak its OT rule for the playoffs to allow for both teams to have at least one possession.