Kicking off the 2017 @NFL season on Twitter

Football fans, the @NFL season is finally here!

The season kicks off tonight as the defending Super Bowl champion @Patriots host the @Chiefs in the the NFL’s annual primetime kickoff game. Twitter will once again serve as your home turf for all things happening on and off the gridiron.

The best and fastest way to join the live NFL conversation and connect directly with teams, players and fellow fans is to Tweet with #NFL all season long. Check out these Twitter lists from the @NFL to Tweet to your favorite team or players.

On TV, the NFL returns to CBS (@NFLonCBS), FOX (@NFLonFOX), NBC (@SNFonNBC) ESPN (@ESPNNFL) and NFL Network (@nflnetwork). Make sure to follow Twitter alongside each live broadcast and turn to each handle between games for the latest NFL news and commentary.

Twitter data
Fans have waited seven months for football to return, but that didn’t stop the conversation on Twitter. There have been nearly 53 million #NFL-related Tweets since the league year began in March. From big name free agents switching teams to shocking draft day trades, #NFL conversation happened on Twitter.

With all those Tweets, the Twitter data team looked at who fans were talking about the most. These were the most-mentioned teams since March:

1. New England Patriots (@Patriots)
2. Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys)
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers)
4. Oakland Raiders (@RAIDERS)
5. Cleveland Browns (@Browns)

And these were the most-mentioned players of the offseason:

1. Tom Brady
2. Odell Beckham, Jr. (@OBJ_3)
3. Marshawn Lynch (@MoneyLynch)
4. Ezekiel Elliott (@EzekielElliott)
5. Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski)

As training camp and the preseason got underway this summer, excitement built about teams poised to make a run to the playoffs in 2017. Here is a look at who fans think will be crowned division champs based off Tweets that mentioned a team name alongside keywords related to “winning.”

Bringing color to #NFL Tweets
To help bring Tweets to life all season long, Twitter and the @NFL have partnered on special team emojis. Fans can Tweet with the hashtags of their favorite team to bring color to their NFL Tweets:

Teams have already started triggering their emojis:

For the first time this season, Periscope is getting in the game, enabling popular hashtags that trigger a flurry of NFL-themed custom hearts. These will float up to the top of the screen alongside the traditional hearts and are enabled when fans tap the screen to “like” live streams from NFL teams.

#GoLive with the NFL on Twitter
NFL Media launched #NFLBlitz, a new 30-minute live show exclusively on Twitter produced by NFL Network from its studios in Los Angeles. Hosted by NFL Network’s Marc Istook (@MarcIstook) and Erin Coscarelli (@erincoscarelli), #NFLBlitz will cover breaking news, game highlights, key storylines, fantasy projections, team power rankings and pre-game updates, all while incorporating fun, entertaining and engaging Twitter content as the NFL conversation unfolds live on the platform every day. Fans Tweeting with #NFLBlitz will also unlock a special show-themed emoji.

Current and former NFL stars like Marquette King (@MarquetteKing), Maurice Jones-Drew (@MJD) and LaDainian Tomlinson (@LT_21) have even dropped by the show to give their take on the topics of the day and the best of NFL conversation on Twitter.

#NFLBlitz airs Monday through Thursday at 7pm ET and is available at NFL.twitter.com and via @NFL.

Enjoy the season and stay close to Twitter for all of the #NFL conversation!