NFL announces Prime Time preseason schedule. Cardinals are featured

Arizona will play the Carolina Panthers in the 2026 Hall of Fame Game held at Tom Benson Stadium in Canton, Ohio, on August 6. As a Cardinals fan, most likely you already knew this, but it is a fact that the NFL is only broadcasting five national games and Arizona is featured in one.

Playing in the Hall of Fame Game means that the Cardinals will play four preseason contests instead of three. When the NFL regular season schedule eventually goes to 18 games, that number will drop to two exhibition games.

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What many clubs are doing is combining practice sessions with another club and then having multiple live action practices in full pads with full contact. This is considered the new norm for an additional practice game.

The Cardinals played the New York Football Giants to a 21-21 tie in the first-ever Hall of Fame Game in 1962. It was the first event created to help raise funds and celebrate the groundbreaking of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to be built in Canton.

Cardinals great WR Larry Fitzgerald will be inducted into this year’s HOF class.

Folks question why the NFL has preseason games at all. The reasons are many. For one, rookies need live game situations to gauge the new level. Secondly, new players that arrive on the roster need the time to get acclimated to a new playbook as well as new teammates. Thirdly, when a new coach is hired, which is the case in Arizona, invariably new schemes are implemented on both sides of the ball, often with different terminology. The players need the practice time, and the coaches need to see who is catching on and who is lagging behind. #4, all teams at all levels need practice games before a season begins. They just do. And finally, the coaches need to know who to cut and who to keep.

Here is the full national TV 2026 preseason schedule:

Aug. 6: Hall of Fame Game – Panthers vs. Cardinals (NBC), 5:00 MST

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Week 2

Aug. 20: Raiders at Texans (ESPN)

Aug. 23: Seahawks at Titans (FOX)

Week 3

Aug. 27: Patriots at Browns (Prime Video)

Aug. 28: Bengals at Eagles (CBS)

A long time ago, teams would play each other at neutral sites. The idea was to spread the message of the league’s existence into areas that may not have considered taking on an NFL team as their favorite, and hopefully generate some new fans on TV and radio broadcasts.

The thought process was that if an NFL team plays a preseason game in a city in proximity to their home stadium, then perhaps those folks would adopt them as “their NFL team” and acquire new fans.

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The New Orleans Saints used to play preseason games in Baton Rouge and Shreveport, LA, Mobile, AL, Little Rock, AR, and Jackson, MS. The Cleveland Browns had an annual game in Columbus, Ohio. The Football Giants played all over the New England area, such as Hartford, CT, Syracuse, NY, Princeton, NJ, New Haven, CT, and Ithaca, NY.

The Cardinals did this as well.

While in St. Louis, they played preseason games in Omaha, NE (1963), Nashville, TN (1967), Champaign, IL (1975), Tempe, AZ (1976), and Memphis, TN (1987). The Chicago Cardinals played at least one preseason game every year in a city that was nearby, hoping to find new fans.

Although the NFL is only featuring five nationally broadcast preseason games, it does not mean that locally, the Cardinals’ games aren’t being shown. Oftentimes, a local TV station will show the game regionally. Sports bars are the best bet to find out if any of the other Arizona preseason games are being featured.

Cardinals full preseason schedule:

Aug. 6: Hall of Fame Game – Panthers vs. Cardinals (NBC), 5:00 MST

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Aug. 13 (Thursday): at Las Vegas Raiders, 5:00 MST

Aug. 22: (Saturday) Dallas Cowboys, 7:00 MST

Aug. 28: (Friday) at Green Bay Packers, 5:00 MST