2013 NFL season

The 2013 NFL season, the 94th regular season of the National Football League, is tentatively set to begin Thursday, September 5, 2013, with the defending Super Bowl XLVII champions the Baltimore Ravens hosting the annual Kickoff game; and will end with Super Bowl XLVIII, the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 2, 2014, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Schedule
The 2013 NFL Draft will be held from April 25–27, 2013, at New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

Under the NFL's scheduling formula, the intraconference and interconference matchups will be: Intraconference Interconference
 * AFC North vs. AFC East
 * AFC South vs. AFC West
 * NFC North vs. NFC East
 * NFC South vs. NFC West
 * AFC North vs. NFC North
 * AFC South vs. NFC West
 * AFC East vs. NFC South
 * AFC West vs. NFC East

What is known of the 2013 schedule is as follows:


 * NFL Kickoff Game: The entire 2013 season tentatively will begin on Thursday, September 5, 2013, starting at 8:35 p.m. EDT on NBC. That game will be played at M&T Bank Stadium and be hosted by the Baltimore Ravens, the winners of Super Bowl XLVII. The possible opponents include the Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots, New York Jets, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, and Houston Texans. However, the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets are unlikely to be selected for the kickoff game, based on their finish in the 2012 season.
 * International Series: Two games will be played at Wembley Stadium in London, England in 2013. The Minnesota Vikings will play host to the Pittsburgh Steelers on September 29, while the Jacksonville Jaguars (in the first of four consecutive International Series appearances for the team) will play host to the San Francisco 49ers on October 27. The Steelers–Vikings game will kickoff at 6:00 p.m. BST (1:00 p.m. EDT), and will air on CBS, while the 49ers–Jaguars game will kickoff at 5:00 p.m. GMT (1:00 p.m. EDT due to Britain ending Daylight Saving time one week before the U.S.), and will air on Fox.
 * Thanksgiving Classic: These games will occur on Thursday, November 28, 2013. The Detroit Lions will host an NFC team (the possibilities are the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) at 12:30 p.m. EST, and will air on Fox. The Dallas Cowboys will host an AFC team — either the Denver Broncos or the Oakland Raiders — at 4:25 p.m. EST, and will air on CBS. The prime-time NBC game, featuring opponents yet to be announced, will be featured at 8:20 p.m. EST.
 * Bills Toronto Series. On January 29, 2013, the Buffalo Bills and Rogers Communications agreed to a five-year extension of the series, which features the Bills playing one home game each year in Toronto's Rogers Centre. The opponent and date will be determined in April.
 * Playoffs: The last regular season games will be held on Sunday, December 29. The playoffs are then scheduled to start on Saturday, January 4, 2014. Conference championship games will be held on Sunday, January 19; the AFC Championship will be played at 3:00 p.m. EST On CBS, and the NFC Championship will follow at 6:30 p.m. EST On Fox. Super Bowl XLVIII, the league's championship game will occur on February 2 at the Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and will be televised by Fox with kickoff around 6:20 p.m. EST.

The opponents for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game will be announced sometime in the spring, while the entire regular season schedule will be announced in April. Also expected to be decided in April is the future of the Pro Bowl, which received a one-year reprieve for the 2013 contest but remains in jeopardy of being canceled.

Stadiums
This will be the final season in which the San Francisco 49ers will play their home games at Candlestick Park, as the team will move into their new stadium in Santa Clara in 2014. With the departure of the 49ers, Candlestick Park will be left without any permanent tenants. On February 3, 2013, plans to demolish Candlestick Park were announced and might take place after the final 2013 49ers game.

This will be the final season in which the Minnesota Vikings will play their home games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, as the team will move temporarily to TCF Bank Stadium (home of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers) while their new stadium is built at the same site as the Metrodome. The Vikings will play the 2014 and 2015 seasons at TCF Bank Stadium and open their new stadium for the 2016 season.

The Oakland Raiders' lease on O.co Coliseum expires after the 2013 season. The Raiders are the only NFL team that still shares its home stadium with a MLB team. The Raiders have been linked to multiple new stadium proposals, including those that involve the franchise returning to the Los Angeles Area.

Media
This will be the eighth and final year of the current TV contracts with CBS, Fox, NBC and ESPN, before the new nine-year contracts begin in 2014. CBS will continue to carry the AFC package, Fox will continue to carry the NFC package, NBC will continue to carry Sunday Night Football, kickoff game and the prime-time Thanksgiving game and ESPN will continue to air 17 Monday Night games in 16 weeks from September 9 through December 23.

Uniforms
The Jacksonville Jaguars updated their logo, and the team indicated that changes could also be coming to their uniforms.

The Miami Dolphins will reportedly update their logo. It is unknown if the team will also update their uniforms.

The Minnesota Vikings tweaked their "Norseman" team logo.

Preseason
By 1:30 p.m. EST on December 31, 2012 (the day after the conclusion of the regular season), seven head coaches and five general managers were fired, setting an NFL record for the most firings in one day. No coaches were fired during the season, but Carolina Panthers General Manager Marty Hurney was dismissed in October.