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Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce join Big Slick KC 2025 event | Kansas City Star
This is in no way shade or disrespect to the many celebrities who come to Kansas City every year to raise money for Children’s Mercy during Big Slick Celebrity Weekend.
But there are two stars in particular who tend to draw the wildest cheers from the KC crowds: Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his football BFF, tight end Travis Kelce.
So the good news for their fans today is that both are on the guest list for this year’s event. The two-day event takes place May 30-31.
The annual weekend raises money for pediatric cancer research at Children’s Mercy Kansas City. Organizers on Wednesday announced two other guests from the sports world: Longtime FOX NFL Sunday host Curt Menefee and WWE star now Food Network chef Tom Pestock (previously known as Baron Corbin), a Kansas City native. Both are Big Slick veterans.
2025 NFL Schedule: Five Teams That Got Screwed | Sports illustrated
1.Kansas City Chiefs
I had a similar complaint about the Jets’ schedule a year ago, when Aaron Rodgers was the league’s dog and pony showcase. I understand the reality of being a branded franchise in the NFL, but the Chiefs were absolutely torn apart by the NFL’s competing broadcast partners this year like a teddy bear being pawed at by a set of spoiled triplets. The Chiefs play in Brazil to start the season—and we all saw how well the setup was there last year, with both teams miraculously avoiding a swarm of soft tissue injuries—before heading home for a physical and emotional Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles. Then: Sunday Night Football in another time zone (Giants), vs. the Ravens in America’s Game of the Week, Monday Night Football at Jacksonville and Detroit on Sunday Night Football before a respite against the Raiders at 1 p.m. ET. This is the first time in NFL history that five of a team’s first eight games are in prime time—and it’s a team that also plays on both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Are we really that superstar deprived to necessitate this?
Winners and losers of 2025 NFL schedule release | Yardbarker
Loser: Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs aim to rebound from their 40-22 loss to the Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. A tough stretch at the beginning of the season could make that challenging.
In six of its first nine games, KC faces six teams that made the playoffs last season. This stretch includes a Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles at home in Week 2 and a road game against the Bills in Week 9.
The Chiefs went 15-2 in 2024, winning 11 games by one possession. Can they bank on that luck again in 2025? They may need it.
2025 NFL schedule: Lions, Browns among seven teams with toughest 17-game slates | NFL.com
7 -Kansas City Chiefs
2024 record: 15-2
Strength of schedule: .522 (T-11th)
Prime-time games: 7
If the Chiefs are going to rise again, they’ll have to pass trials on both sides of the ball. They’re set to face four of the top five scoring offenses from last season, and they have a total of five games against the league’s top three scoring defenses from 2024.
Things get gnarly right out of the gate with a Week 1 trip to do battle with the Chargers in São Paulo, followed by a home date with the Eagles seven months after Philly’s Super Bowl stomping of the Chiefs. The fans will be up for that one, but that doesn’t make the matchup any less difficult.
Some tougher battles are preceded by buffer lead-in opponents, like the Giants in Week 3 before the Ravens in Week 4 and the Jags in Week 5 ahead of the Lions in Week 6, and that helps. Still, the Chiefs must host the Commanders on Monday Night Football and then go to Buffalo on a short week, prior to their Week 10 bye. The off-week placement is better than the Week 6 bye they received last season, but then they hit an 11-day span in which they have to play three games, including a Thanksgiving contest in Dallas.
NFL schedule: Each AFC team’s win total projection for 2025 season | NFL.com
Wins 11.2 -Kansas City Chiefs
AFC WEST CHAMPIONS
Win Total: over 10.5 (-160)
Make Playoffs: -360
Win Division: -135
Win Conference: +390
Win Super Bowl: +800
We should learn a lot about the Chiefs’ new-look offensive line — with new tackles Jaylon Moore (a free agent) and Josh Simmons (a first-round pick) now in the mix, and a competition forthcoming to replace traded-away guard Joe Thuney — early on, with the Eagles’ imposing defense coming to town in Week 2. And we should understand much more about the overall ceiling of this team by Week 4, when K.C. hosts the Ravens. Don’t overlook this three-game stretch, which I think features a good deal of volatility: Week 8 vs. the Commanders on Monday Night Football, followed by a trip to Buffalo in Week 9 and another trip to Denver in Week 11 (after a Week 10 bye).
NFL unveils full schedule; Eagles-Chiefs rematch in Week 2 | ESPN
Along with Kansas City, Dallas and Washington have eight stand-alone games, the most in the NFL.
The Chiefs are scheduled for three games on Sunday night: at the New York Giants in Week 3; vs. the Lions on Oct. 12; and vs. the Houston Texans on Dec. 7. Kansas City has two Monday night games in the same month: at the Jaguars on Oct. 6 and vs. the Commanders on Oct. 27.
The Chiefs-Bills AFC championship rematch will be in Buffalo on Nov. 2.
“I enjoy it,” Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins told NFL Network on Wednesday night of the team’s Week 9 matchup. “They’re one of those teams, you want to hate them, but the games are always so good. And the competition is always so high. That’s just like one of those games, one of those teams, that I really enjoy playing. You want to win, you got to beat the best. And those guys have proven year in and year out that they really are what they are.”
Around the NFL
NFL games will stream on another service in 2025 | SB Nation
Which streaming services will you need to watch every NFL game this year?
In order to watch every NFL game this season, you’ll need Amazon Prime, Netflix, Peacock, and YouTube in addition to ESPN (streaming or cable) plus YouTube TV with or NFL+ for NFL Sunday Ticket. Paramount+ (the CBS streamer) and the new Fox One streaming services will have Sunday afternoon games if you don’t have cable or an antenna. That can add up pretty quickly.
All games in a team’s home market are still over-the-air for free on local broadcast television, so as league commissioner Roger Goodell has said in the past, the majority of fans have the same number of free games available to them as they have for decades. The notable exception is a team’s secondary markets in the cities closest to their home markets, which don’t broadcast over the air if the game is paywalled.
As Goodell puts it, these games on streaming platforms are value-adds for fans across the country and world that didn’t exist before.
Goodell has also explained that this is the NFL serving the next generation of NFL fans, as streaming services skew younger demographically. Hooking younger viewers in a fractured media landscape is a big plus for the NFL down the road.
Johnson’s Bears debut vs. Vikings opens ‘Monday Night Football’ slate | ESPN
The 2025 “Monday Night Football” schedule kicks off with an NFC North showdown between the Ben Johnson-led Chicago Bears and the visiting Minnesota Vikings on Sept. 8.
The prime-time divisional clash, announced as part of the NFL’s 2025 schedule release Wednesday night, marks the beginning of Johnson’s head coaching tenure in Chicago, which hired him in January following his six-season stint as an assistant with the Detroit Lions.
It will also mark Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy’s NFL debut after he missed the 2024 season because of a knee injury. McCarthy, the No. 10 pick of last year’s draft, matches up against Bears quarterback Caleb Williams, who went No. 1 overall in the same draft.
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
2025 NFL Schedule Release: 3 best and 2 worst Chiefs games this season
Best games
Washington Commanders at Chiefs — Week 8
The Commanders really impressed me last season. They have done a terrific job of resurrecting a long-suffering franchise. I think it is going to be a team to watch in the coming years — if not right now. Washington’s 2024 season didn’t end well, but I think that was more about overachieving against the Lions — and therefore coming out flat against the Eagles — than it was about a serious flaw in the team or its culture.
I’ll admit that it’s pretty easy to give too much credit to an ascending team. Maybe I’m doing it now. We’ll have to see how the Commanders look when they come to Kansas City.
Chiefs atBuffalo Bills — Week 9
The dynamic between these two teams is unique. In recent years, either squad is capable of winning any matchup between them. Yet somehow, the Bills manage to win most of the regular-season games, while the Chiefs win most (OK... all) of the postseason contests.
Is it because Kansas City cares more about the postseason matchup, so they devote their best game-planning to those games? Is it because the Bills are really good — but not quite good enough to consistently win in the postseason? Or is it some crazy coincidence that will someday even out?
No one can say. But the games are always entertaining, aren’t they?
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