The USA’s National Football League is set to break away from tradition this year.
They will not be opening their upcoming 2019-2020 season with the reigning Super Bowl Champions, the New England Patriots.
Instead, this honor has been given to the Chicago Bears to help them celebrate their 100th anniversary.
Bears, the 1985 Super Bowl champions, will play the season-opener against four-time Super Bowl winners Green Bay Packers.
The match is scheduled to be played on the Bear’s own turf at Soldiers Field on September 5.
Patriots to feature in first Sunday night game
Their opponents have not been announced, but it is known the Patriots will feature in the NFL’s first Sunday night match.
The full schedule of league games is expected to be announced later this month.
Meanwhile, Bears, who lost 46-10 to Patriots in their only other Super Bowl final (2006), are opening day favorites.
The New Jersey sportsbook, FanDuel’s money-line odds on them was -194 as opposed to +166 on Packers. On the same game, 888Sport’s spread bet options on the teams were -3.5 for Bears and +3.5 for Packers (-110).
If we look next at the bigger NFL picture in these early days before the draft, what do we see?
Kansas City Chiefs and the Patriots at +750 are the current joint favorites to win the 2020 Super Bowl. The La Rams and New Orleans Saints are the joint second favorites at +900. Then, coming up behind them, are the Cleveland Browns and Indiana Colts at +14000 and the LA Chargers at +1500.
