The Philadelphia Eagles will start defending their championship at home on Sept. 4 against their NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys in a rare intra-division matchup for the NFL’s annual regular-season kickoff game.

The selection was revealed on Monday by the NFL, the first in a series of announcements of notable games on each of the league’s broadcasters ahead of the full schedule release on Wednesday night.

The Eagles will also be featured in a Saturday doubleheader on Fox on Dec. 20, with a road game against another NFC East foe, the Washington Commanders. The other game on Fox pits the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears, in an NFC North matchup in Chicago. That doubleheader will put the NFL in a ratings competition against the College Football Playoff, with three first-round games scheduled that day — two on TNT and one on ESPN — creating some inevitable overlap.

The NFL will unveil the matchups for its record seven international games this season on Tuesday, along with a handful of marquee games — on ESPN, CBS and Netflix. The complete 2025 NFL schedule will be revealed on Wednesday night.

The Cowboys-Eagles matchup will be on Thursday night, the leadoff for NBC’s package of primarily Sunday night games. NBC also announced that its streaming service, Peacock, will exclusively broadcast a Saturday night game in Week 17 on Dec. 27, a matchup that will be determined later from a pool of possible options and selected based on the relevancy to the playoff races.

Defensive end Trey Hendrickson and the Cincinnati Bengals remain deadlocked on progress toward a new deal or finding a new team.

Hendrickson, who led the NFL with 17 1/2 sacks last season, released a statement to ESPN saying there has been no communication between his representatives or the organization since the NFL draft two weeks ago.

“The offers prior to the draft did not reflect the vision we shared and were promised last offseason if I continued to play at a high level,” Hendrickson said. “Coaches are aware of these past conversations. Rather than using collaboration to get us to a point to bring me home to the team, THEY are no longer communicating. I have been eagerly awaiting a resolution of this situation, but that’s hard to do when there is no discussion and an evident lack of interest in reaching mutual goals.”

Linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah has been placed on the reserve/physically unable to perform list by the Cleveland Browns and will miss the 2025 season because of a neck injury.

HOCKEY

Last year’s runner-up Switzerland shut out the United States 3-0 and handed the Americans their first loss at the ice hockey world championship in Herning, Denmark.

Damien Riat, Jonas Siegenthaler and Dean Kukan scored in the Group B game in Herning. Net-minder Leonardo Genoni stopped 23 shots for the shutout.

“Give credit to Switzerland,” U.S. coach Ryan Warsofsky of the San Jose Sharks said. “But I know our group has a lot more in them. We’ll regroup and get ready to play Norway.”

Riat put Switzerland ahead with 7:14 remaining in the first period, redirecting the puck into the goal from the air. It was the first goal the U.S. conceded at the tournament.

The U.S. beat Denmark 5-0 and Hungary 6-0 in its first two games, and face Norway on Wednesday.

HORSE RACING

Beaten by Sovereignty down the stretch in the slop in the Kentucky Derby, Journalism is favored to get the job done in the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes.

Journalism opened as the 8-5 morning line favorite when post positions were drawn Monday night for the middle leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown.

Journalism, trained by Michael McCarthy, is again set to be ridden by jockey Umberto Rispoli and leave the starting gate from the No. 2 post. Post time is set for 4:01 p.m. PDT on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course.

No. 7 Sandman is the 4-1 second choice in the field of nine, which does not include Sovereignty after his owners and trainer decided not to run the Derby winner two weeks after his triumph at Churchill Downs.