Week 1 is a product launch that happens to keep score

The tennis is over. Zverev took the Open. The remote now belongs to a sport that spent August selling itself as a movie trailer. Sunday is the first day the trailer has to be a game. Falcons at Steelers in the early window. Commanders at Eagles when the late slate starts. Cowboys at Giants after dinner because the league still believes a New York night is a national religion.

What works is duration. A game is allowed to be three hours. What fails is the apparatus around it: the red-zone blender, the betting bug that treats a third-and-seven like a stock ticker, the studio that keeps previewing a season that has already begun. Watch the play. The rest is a store that learned how to talk during a snap.

Monday is Arrowhead. That is a different show. Sunday is the inventory arriving at once. Treat it like a slate, not a referendum on the year.

Pick a window and stay there. The league already sold you the rest of the year.