Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready Set for Anthem and Halftime Duties as NFL Opens 2026 Season in Seattle

The NFL’s 2026 campaign gets underway Wednesday night with an unusual twist: a midweek opener at Lumen Field, where the Seattle Seahawks will host the New England Patriots in a rematch of Super Bowl 60. The Wednesday slot comes about because the traditional Thursday kickoff spot is occupied by a matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams in Australia, pushing the league’s opening night forward by a day.

The pregame spotlight belongs to a Seattle music icon. Mike McCready, a founding guitarist of Pearl Jam, will perform the national anthem before kickoff. The band, formed in Seattle in 1990 by McCready, bassist Jeff Ament, and guitarist Stone Gossard — with Eddie Vedder and drummer Dave Krusen later joining the lineup — has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.

McCready acknowledged the nerves that come with the assignment. Speaking to the Seahawks’ official site, he described the pressure of wanting to deliver a performance that “means something,” noting that despite having performed the anthem multiple times, the stakes never quite fade.

His night won’t end there. At halftime, McCready is scheduled to share the stage with Soundgarden, another pillar of Seattle’s 1990s grunge scene. The two bands share deep personal ties: Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron joined Pearl Jam in place of Jack Irons in the 1990s, and Temple of the Dog — the side project founded in 1990 by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell — featured both McCready and Cameron.

For the broadcast side, the game airs on NBC, a property of Comcast, whose media segment remains one of the company’s key businesses. Comcast shares were trading at $24.44 on Wednesday, down 7.18% from the previous close of $26.33, with the company carrying a market capitalization of roughly $92.5 billion.

The pairing of a marquee season opener with hometown music royalty underscores the league’s ongoing effort to blend entertainment and sport in its biggest showcase events — a formula also on display with the league’s first regular-season game in Australia later in the week.

What to watch

• Viewership figures for the Wednesday-night opener and the 49ers–Rams game in Australia, both early indicators of NFL audience trends for the 2026 season.
• Comcast’s next quarterly earnings report, which will detail NBC’s sports-driven advertising performance.
• League scheduling announcements, including any further international regular-season expansions.

Source: original release