‘Sunday Night Football’ 2016 live stream: How to watch Patriots vs. Cardinals online

The New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals kick off another season of Sunday Night Football in Glendale in a matchup of two teams who almost met each other in the Super Bowl last season. Both teams made it to their respective conference championship games, only to come up short.

The Patriots will have to go without their future Hall of Fame quarterback for this game and beyond. After over a year of appeals, counter-appeals and mindless drama, Tom Brady finally put an end to the DeflateGate sage and accepted his four-game suspension. In his place is Jimmy Garoppolo, making his first NFL start. He'll have a tough task going up against the Cardinals' defense, which added Chandler Jones in a trade with the Patriots earlier in the offseason.

Arizona is also getting back Tyrann Mathieu from injury and Patrick Peterson returns to anchor one of the league's best secondaries. And while Garoppolo will have reliable weapon Julian Edelman to throw to, he won't have Rob Gronkowski, who is out with a hamstring injury, to throw to.

The Cardinals looked like the best team in football for large stretches last year, only to come apart in the NFC Championship, when Carson Palmer threw four interceptions in the 42-15 loss to the Carolina Panthers. Palmer will try to put that performance behind him, and he has just the supporting cast to do so. David Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown might be the best collection of offensive playmakers in the league right now, and they'll be eager to tear through the NFC West once again.