The 2021-22 NFL season officially kicks off on Thursday evening. The defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers will get the chance to celebrate their title by playing hosts to the first game of the year. On the other side of the field will be the Dallas Cowboys, which had a rough season last year but, with Dak Prescott returning from injury and a division that might be the weakest in the league, there are reasons to believe Dallas will be able to make its way back to the playoffs.
Because this is the NFL we’re talking about here, the league can’t just make the first game of the season a football game that is on our televisions. It has to make this an all-out event, including a pregame concert by Ed Sheeran. You have possibly seen this graphic by now…
It’s almost here!
Join @edsheeran at the #Kickoff2021 Experience. @EAMaddenNFL pic.twitter.com/zQyv7y8QlK
— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2021
Pretty good! Well it turns out the NFL has come down with a pretty bad case of Sheeranmania, because the league has decided to make a bunch of gear that has his name on it to celebrate his pregame performance.
NFL x @edsheeran#Kickoff2021 Merch is here: https://t.co/mR2DjZOTdw pic.twitter.com/FhQh2XgZ6N
— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2021
Unfortunately, it appears there has never been a player with the last name Sheeran in the history of the league, which ruins any and all hopes I had with ending this post with a joke saying this gear paid reference to some random player from the 1930s.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.