Outside of Dallas Cowboys fans — and maybe not even them — nobody was clamoring for the Cowboys to be in the first game of the NFL regular season.
Maybe we should have predicted the NFL picking the Cowboys for the NFL's kickoff game. The NFL loves to spotlight NFC East teams in prime spots, and Dallas was the pick to face the Philadelphia Eagles in the league's traditional Thursday night Week 1 opener. In the history of the kickoff game the NFL has picked a divisional opponent to face the reigning Super Bowl champion only three times, and all three times it was an NFC East matchup.