The Seattle Seahawks will open the 2026 season against the New England Patriots. In all its wisdom, the NFL did no favors for the defending champions because, most likely, a lot of the attention in Week 1 is going to be on the Pats.
And for all the wrong reasons. Assuming Mike Vrabel is still the head coach of the team, his off-field issues, specifically the one involving reporter Dianna Russini, much of the national talk will be about a non-player, and about nothing that has anything to do on the field. Media personality Jim Rome knows it too.
Speaking on his podcast recently, Rome said everything that most 12s are feeling about the game. Partly, the NFL wanted to get the Vrabel situation out of the way as quickly as possible, and if that screws over the Seahawks, so be it.
Jim Rome speaks for Seattle Seahawks fans everywhere when discussing Week 1 disrespect
"This Super Bowl rematch has nothing to do with a Super Bowl rematch and everything to do with the public fascination with the Patriots' head coach, his personal life, and where his career goes from here." Rome said. "That's what that's about…That's why they gave us that game. That's why they knew they could upstage the entire schedule release with one simple post, with one simple graphic… They knew they would upstage the entire thing by giving us Vrabel as soon as they possibly could."
A Week 1 rematch of Super Bowl opponents from the previous year is not a normal thing. The last time it happened was literally a decade ago. Moreover, Seattle had far more worthy opponents on its schedule to play to open the NFL season on Wednesday, September 9, and one of those was the Chicago Bears.
The draw there is obvious: The Bears have a young star quarterback in the person of Caleb Williams. Chicago also had a large fanbase that would stop what they are doing to watch a team they hope can win the NFC next season, take on the team that did with the conference last season.
The Seattle Seahawks and their fans at Lumen Field would also not have to deal with so much national attention being paid to the other team, one that head coach Mike Macdonald's team blew out in the title game earlier in 2026.
Jim Rome is simply saying out loud what many people are thinking, and should say it. Maybe the NFL would take notice. Not that the schedule would be changed, of course, but at least maybe the league could make a decision whether to suspend Mike Vrabel for a few games for causing the NFL to have such a black eye.
Rome is right: The league wants to protect the Shield at all costs, but scheduling the Patriots against the Seahawks doesn't do that. It only enflames an ugly situation involving the head coach of New England and whether he did or didn't do something with a female reporter.
This article was originally published on www.12thmanrising.com as Jim Rome says the quiet part out loud about Seahawks opener.
