The Night Before Football: Week One is Finally Here
It is the night before football season, and we are absolutely not okay about it. In the best possible way.
Week one is here. The wait is over. And apparently the NFL decided we didn't need a warm-up period this year because before the first full game even kicked off, we already had quarterback storylines, injury news, big contracts, new faces, and enough to talk about for an hour. Which we did. Because that is what we do.
The Super Bowl Rematch That Opens the Season
Game one of the 2026 NFL season is the New England Patriots vs. the Seattle Seahawks — a Super Bowl rematch — and the girlfriends have mixed feelings about it.
Before kickoff, there was already injury news to report. New England rookie running back Travion Henderson is out with an ankle injury, and center Ben Brown is out with a knee injury. On the Seattle side, safety Ty Okada is out while safety Nick Imanowary and wide receiver Torrey Horton are both questionable.
But the real news out of New England heading into week one is cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who just became the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history after signing a four-year deal. His stats from last year tell the story: fifty-four solo tackles, sixty-nine assisted tackles, and only thirty-five receptions allowed in fourteen games. That is two and a half receptions per game. The reason New England made it as far as they did in the postseason last year was in large part because of what Gonzalez did to shut down opposing receivers. He deserved every penny.
Add in AJ Brown at wide receiver and Drake Mays at quarterback with a new weapon, and the Patriots are a team that came to compete. Laura may not like them. But she will admit they have something brewing.
49ers vs. Rams in Australia: Dezi Has a Jersey and We All Have Feelings
The game of the week is the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Los Angeles Rams, being played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia on Thursday, September 10th — the first ever NFL regular season game played on Australian soil, streaming on Netflix.
Dezi wore her George Kittle jersey because her man got off the injury report. Christian McCaffrey is also not on the injury report. Mike Evans is not on the injury report. Basically the 49ers are as healthy as they have been in recent memory, which in 49ers terms means "healthy" is relative, but we are taking what we can get.
The notable absence from the Australia game? Aaron Donald. He did not get on the plane. He is not playing. Dezi is not upset about this.
Myles Garrett, on the other hand, is still dealing with a knee issue. His practices have been scattered in that very Christian McCaffrey way where it is sort of planned and sort of not. There is also video circulating of Garrett working with someone on technique — and basically steamrolling the poor man who is trying to block him in a way that one of us described as looking exactly like that Yellowstone video of the guy getting hit by a buffalo. Which is accurate. Which is terrifying. Which is somehow reassuring from a 49ers perspective because it means even a somewhat banged up Myles Garrett is still Myles Garrett.
The two teams came into this game with very different mentalities about the travel. The Rams were focused on getting down there and getting out. The 49ers put all their eggs in the week one basket. Win this game and get the early division advantage. It matters. The NFC West is not soft.
Laura added that having been to an international NFL game herself, she can confirm: it is extraordinary. People from all over the world, an energy you cannot replicate anywhere else, and the sport expanding its footprint in a way that is genuinely exciting to watch. Netflix has also gotten their streaming act together since the early days, so catching this one from your couch at 8:35pm ET on a Thursday should be a smooth experience.
Beth's contribution: George Kittle for Comeback Player of the Week. She also wants to start that as a segment. We are considering it.
The Cost of the Game: Brain Health in Football
We love this sport. We also believe that loving a sport means being willing to talk honestly about its risks. So we did.
A new study just came out examining neurodegenerative mortality among NFL players. The findings were striking: neurodegenerative disease mortality was nearly four times higher in NFL players compared to the general population, and remained three times higher even after accounting for other factors.
The study looked at nearly twenty thousand athletes who played at least one regular or postseason NFL game between 1960 and 2019. The neurodegenerative diseases in question include ALS, Parkinson's, CTE, and dementia.
Beth broke it down the way only a doctor of physical therapy can. First, the important caveat: correlation is not causation. We are not saying football causes these diseases. What we are saying is that the prevalence is significantly higher in this population, and that matters.
The key distinction she made is that we are not talking about one big hit. It is not one concussion that creates this risk. It is the cumulative effect of thousands of small impacts over a lifetime of playing — from elementary school through high school through college through professional football. The brain is experiencing shearing forces repeatedly over decades. The symptoms may not appear for twenty, thirty, even forty years. By the time we can see them, the disease has been progressing for a long time.
The conversation also turned toward the Women's Football Alliance — a topic close to our hearts after our WFA episode this summer. Women generally come to tackle football later in life, without the decades of youth football contact exposure. That is an interesting variable worth studying, and we hope someone will.
For anyone raising a young football player, this information matters. Not to scare you off the sport, but to understand the full picture and push for safer protocols at every level of the game.
Play football. Love football. And let's keep making it safer.
Fantasy Football: Gina from Fan Girl Football Has Picks
Our friends at Fan Girl Football's Gina Noble joined us with her week one fantasy picks, and they were excellent. Here are the highlights:
🏈 Justin Herbert, QB (Chargers) — Arizona was the second-worst defense against running backs and tight ends last season. Herbert's ceiling against that defense could be 275 yards and multiple touchdowns, especially if Arizona keeps it competitive.
🏈 Jackson Dart, QB (Giants) — Dallas allowed 23.9 fantasy points to quarterbacks and the most points to wide receivers in the NFL last season. Dart has top-ten potential in week one.
🏈 O'Marion Hampton, RB (Chargers) — The best matchup of the week. Arizona gave up 25.5 points per game to running backs. If LA controls this game, Hampton could see 18-22 carries and real touchdown upside.
🏈 DeAndre Swift, RB (Bears) — Carolina allowed the seventh-most points to running backs last season. A 15-18 touch workload makes Swift a smash start with top-twelve potential.
🏈 CeeDee Lamb, WR (Cowboys) — Elite receiver in a divisional game where Dak will play aggressive. High target floor, safe 20+ PPR points even without a touchdown.
🏈 Zay Flowers, WR (Ravens) — Gina is pushing against consensus here. If Lamar's passing offense reaches its ceiling against Indy, Flowers could deliver 7-8 catches, 80+ yards, and a score.
🏈 Brock Bowers, TE (Raiders) — Gina called him a cheat code and she is not wrong. Uncontested tight end one for the season. Against a Miami defense, expect 10+ targets and 15-20 fantasy points easily.
🏈 Kyle Pitts, TE (Falcons) — Tua's quick short-to-intermediate passing game favors a tight end like Pitts. The Steelers allowed 13+ points to opposing tight ends in 11 of 17 games last season. Chase this matchup.
Tua Gets the Job in Atlanta — For Now
The Falcons officially named Tua Tagovailoa their Week 1 starter against the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Michael Penix Jr. inactive as he continues recovering from his torn ACL. Cooper Rush will back up Tua.
This will be Atlanta's sixth consecutive season with a different Week 1 starting quarterback. Six. In a row.
The fine print worth noting: the Falcons technically said he is the starter "for Week 1." Not for the season. Not definitively. Just week one. Penix, when healthy, was always the long-term plan. So this is a seat-warmer situation, and most people around the league seem to understand that. Still, Tua has the talent and the experience, and with Bijan Robinson at running back and Drake London at receiver, he has real weapons around him. Health, as always, is the question.
Love Em or Hate Em: AFC Edition
We played a round of Love Em or Hate Em with AFC teams and here is where the girlfriends landed:
🦬 Buffalo Bills — Love them. All three of us. Beth obviously. Laura because of the Great Lakes grit. Dezi because we love Beth.
🏈 New England Patriots — No thank you.
🤠 Houston Texans — Laura: friend zone. Beth: hate (no wins in Houston). Dezi: love them, she is in love with D'Amico Ryans and has been for some time.
🦅 Baltimore Ravens — Laura: love (they were named after Edgar Allen Poe and she respects a literary team). Beth: hate (they were stolen from Cleveland). Dezi: hate, also from Baltimore, also feels the Colts wound, also loves Lamar and Zay and King Henry as individuals but cannot give the team her full heart.
🐴 Denver Broncos — Beth: hate. Laura: friend zone. Dezi: wants to hate them but really just cannot stand Sean Payton's face and has to separate that from the team.
A viewer noted in the live chat that Ravens fans ruin the Ravens for everyone. We called that fair.
Thirsty for Football: The LLB Punch
Our brand new cocktail and mocktail segment made its official debut, and the week one drink was the LLB Punch — an Australian-inspired party punch created specifically for the 49ers-Rams Australia game.
LLB stands for Lemon, Lime, and Bitters — apparently a very popular drink in Australia. The recipe is beautifully simple: juice of lemons and limes, simple syrup to sweeten, Angostura bitters for a warm spice note, and San Pellegrino or any sparkling water to make it fizzy.
This one is naturally non-alcoholic, so the cocktail swap is actually the reverse of our usual — add gin (or any clear liquor) to make it a cocktail. Beth went the shortcut route and used Sprite with Angostura bitters and gin. Laura also used Sprite. Neither of them had time to juice fresh lemons and limes fifteen minutes before showtime, and we respect the honesty.
It is a great party punch for your Australian watch party group. Make a big batch. It is easy, bright, citrusy, and the bitters give it just enough complexity to feel like a real cocktail even in its mocktail form.
Find this recipe and all of our Thirsty for Football recipes on our website at girlfriendsandfootball.com. And keep an eye out for our upcoming book Thirsty for Football — coming later this year.
Super Bowl Predictions
The question everyone has been waiting for. Who is going to the Super Bowl?
Beth's pick: Buffalo Bills vs. Los Angeles Rams. She is not apologizing for the Rams pick and was threatened accordingly.
Laura's pick: Detroit Lions vs. Buffalo Bills. She pointed out that the Super Bowl this year falls on Valentine's Day — which also happens to be her thirty-second wedding anniversary. Thirty-two teams. Thirty-two years. She is taking this as a sign. She also noted that the Lions' owner has specifically said it is Super Bowl or bust this season, which is a real thing that was said out loud.
Dezi's pick: She cannot pick against the 49ers and also cannot pick against the Lions or Bills. She sees a Bills-Lions path. She would love Bills-Niners for the Chris Berman Super Bowl she has been waiting for her whole life, but she would also hate to watch either of those beloved teams lose again. So Lions-Bills. She can live with it.
That's a Wrap on Week One Eve
Football is back. The season has officially started. And if this episode was any indication — and we believe it was — this is going to be one of the best seasons of Girlfriends + Football yet.
You do not have to know every stat, every player, or every rule to love this game. Ask the questions. Learn along with us. Cheer for your team. And have a beverage while you do it.
We will see you next week with full week one reactions, more hot takes, and probably a few things the three of us completely disagree about.
Which, honestly, is exactly what makes this fun.
Watch or Listen to the Full Episode
Catch the full Girlfriends + Football Season Kickoff Eve Special on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — search Girlfriends + Football wherever you get your podcasts.
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