As college football and NFL seasons start, restaurants and fast-food chains make tailgate plays

Are you ready for some football? Many college football teams take the field this week and the NFL season kicks off next Thursday.

Whether you're going to tailgate or have a watch party at home, you'll need some tailgating recipes if you plan on cooking. And don't forget to practice proper food safety.

Or, just hand the preparation off to one or more of a roster of restaurants and fast-food chains making a play for football fans' gameday plans. You can opt for pizzas from Little Caesars or your nearby 7-Eleven. Prefer sandwiches? Honey Baked Ham Company and Schlotzsky's have some options you can run.

An old reliable, chicken wings play well at most gatherings, and there's a whole roster of food spots ready to serve them up in restaurants or to go. Many even have specials for the start of the college and pro football seasons.

Here's some new dishes, deals and specials to help with your game-day festivities:

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Little Caesars' free pizza delivery to start NFL season

To start the season, the pizza purveyor and official pizza sponsor of the NFL is "sidelining" delivery fees made online or in the Little Caesars app through Sept. 10, the first Sunday of the NFL season. That means no delivery fee or additional service or small order fees.

Also starting Sept. 7, you'll be automatically entered into the Pizza!Pizza! Pregame drawing when you order Little Caesars one hour before and up to three hours after the start of Monday Night Football and Thursday Night Football, or any time the restaurants are open on Sunday. The grand prize for the drawing is a free trip to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. (The promotion lasts until Jan. 8, 2024.)

Little Caesars is also partnering with cities that have NFL teams to bring its Little Caesars Love Kitchen, a restaurant on wheels, to serve pizza to needy communities. The first event will be in Kansas City on Sept. 7. The company plans to serve more than 600 people between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time.

Burger King

Coinciding with the NFL season's start Thursday night – when the Kansas City Chiefs host the Detroit Lions on NBC – and through Oct. 8, Burger King is giving members of its Royal Perks loyalty program 25% off their entire order made through the BK App or online at BK.com.

Chili's ongoing football happy hour; BOGO wings for Monday Night Football

When there's a football game on TV, it's happy hour at Chili's. That means all-day on Saturday and Sunday, and from 3 p.m. to closing local time on Mondays and Thursday (happy hour on typical non-game days of Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday is 3 to 6 p.m.; specific hours may vary by location). Happy hour specials include beer starting at $3, margaritas at $6, wings at $7 and up, and Loaded Queso Fries at $6.

Also on Mondays during the football season, when you buy an eight-piece boneless chicken wings, you get another one for free. The restaurant's chicken tenders also come in a new flavor, Nashville Hot Chicken Crispers (the sauce is also an option for bone-in or boneless wings).

Del Taco passes along free delivery during September

Beef up your watch party with Del Taco's new Honey Chipotle BBQ Brisket, which comes in a quesadilla ($6.49), a brisket and bacon burrito ($8.99), and brisket and bacon fries ($6.99). Del Yeah! rewards members can also get free delivery with a $20 minimum through Sept. 30 (Monday-Saturday only).

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Frito-Lay snacks get you 30% off at NFL shopping site

NFL fans can find some of their favorite snacks in stores in special "Taste of Gameday" packaging with a QR code that gets you 30% off purchases at NFLShop.com.

Honey Baked Ham Company's new Tailgate Packs

The Honey Baked Ham Company wants customers to think beyond chips and dip and chicken wings for game outlays with four new tailgate packs (priced at about $9 per person, varies by location):

• Half Ham Playmaker Pack: Make your own ham sliders with an 8-pound bone-In half ham, two 12-packs of King's Hawaiian Rolls and four containers of side dishes (potato salad or Broccoli Bacon Bliss).
• Pick 2 Slider Pack: Two 12-packs of Take & Bake Sliders (choices include Ham & Swiss Sliders, Garlic Herb Turkey & Cheddar Sliders and new limited-time Turkey Bacon Ranch Sliders; comes with eight bags of chips.
• Big Game Sandwich Pack: A buffet tray of sandwiches — choices include ham, club, smoked turkey, turkey bacon ranch, ham salad and chicken salad — with one bag of chips per person.
• Sandwich Playmaker Pack: Ham, turkey breast, assorted sliced cheeses, lettuce, tomatoes, condiments and bread to make your own sandwiches. Comes with deli sides and one cookie per person.

Honey Baked Ham will have a college football Tailgate Tour during the season — with samples, prizes and swag — starting on Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the North Carolina-South Carolina matchup, then in Raleigh, N.C., the following week for Notre Dame vs. NC State.

Jinya Ramen Bar

The Japanese eatery touts its new Sweet Soy Glazed Chicken Wings, which land on the menu on Friday as a healthier game-night alternative to fried and breaded wings.

Returning to the menu that day: Kara-Men Ramen, made with pork soboro, bean sprouts, green and diced onion, and served on top of thin noodles in a rich chicken broth and finished with cilantro, chili paste, tamago and sesame seeds.

Krispy Krunchy Chicken's Tailgate Special of tenders

The Tailgate Special, available until Oct. 10, includes 20-piece Cajun chicken tenders and five dipping sauces for $29.99 (at participating locations while supplies last).

Krystal's National Tailgate Day deal on Saturday

Fast-food chain Krystal wants to help make tailgating easier on National Tailgate Day, the first Saturday in September. That day, you can get 10 Krystals for $9.99 or 10 wings for $9.99, and 10 Krystals and 10 Wings for $19.99.

The restaurants have also brought back the Chili Cheese Krystal, topped with chili, American cheese, diced onions, and mustard (available as a combo with two sliders, medium fries or tots, and a medium drink, or as part of Pick 5).

Loungefly's licensed NFL wallets, mini backpacks

Loungefly has new NFL accessories to have you styling at your season-opening tailgate or watch party. Opt for a Sequin Zip Around wallet ($40) or Sequin Mini Backpack ($90).

Mattel's NFL Little People Collector Sets

Not food, but Mattel's new Little People Collector Sets could make good decorations for your NFL tailgate. For the first time available for all NFL teams, the collector sets ($25) include miniature player figurines and Little People "super fans," and are available for pre-order here.

Fantasy football players, your entire league team could be immortalized in a collection through the Little People Collector: FANtasy Frenzy Sweepstakes, with one winner replica figures of up to 11 fantasy league members wearing personalized jerseys in a custom package. Enter on the Mattel website through Sept. 7.

7-Eleven $3 boneless wings all season long

The convenience store chain has some new snacks in its lineup for football season, available at participating 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes locations: among them are cheesy garlic bread sticks (two for $2.29); a spicy meat pizza with spicy pepperoni and sausage, plus beef and bacon, diced jalapeno and red pepper flakes (a whole pizza costs about $9.50, but may vary by region); and the chicken bacon ranch roller, made with turkey bacon.

Special deals for members of the 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards loyalty programs include an order of eight of the new Korean BBQ boneless wings for just $3 — an offer good until Jan. 9, 2024, a day after the college football championship game — or five classic wings, such as the Buffalo breaded BBQ wings, for $5, and two new Pigs in a Blanket for $3.49.

Schlotzsky's football season-opening sandwich deals

Want to load up on sandwiches ahead of the game? Schlotzsky's has some deals including a buy-one-now, get-one-cheaper-later special: Through Oct. 31, when Schlotzsky’s Rewards Members buy any original sandwich they get a 25% off reward in the Schlotzsky’s App to use for the next seven days (it can be used more than once, but expires after seven days).

Download the Schlotzsky's app and every time you buy an original style sandwich through Oct. 29, you will be entered in a contest to win free sandwiches for a year.

Also, when you spend $25 on Schlotzsky’s gift cards, you get a reward code for a free small original sandwich (offer runs to Oct. 1, and you must unlock the code before Oct. 15 and use it within 14 days).

Smashburger kicks off season with $6 wings deal

To start the NFL season, Smashburger has a $6 wing special Sept. 7-11 on any flavor including the new limited-time Sweet Thai Chili wings when you order online or in stores (each order has six bone-in wings; limit of two wing orders per customer).

Smokey Bones' has a feast made for football fantasy leagues

Smokey Bones has a special Fantasy Feast package to feed your fantasy league during your draft. The limited-time Fantasy Feast ($249.99) feeds up to 12 guests with six dozen jumbo chicken wings, three racks of St. Louis-style ribs, sides, garlic bread, and two dozen cinnamon sugar donut holes. Draft beer pitchers are $10, too.

Subway has a blimp hitting NFL cities and a Super Bowl sweepstakes

You can ride in the blimp.

The Subway in the Sky is a 180-foot blimp decorated to look like “The Beast,” one of the chain's new Deli Hero subs made with a half pound of freshly sliced meat. The vessel has an on-board restaurant in the gondola that can hold six diners. About 40 people per day will be able to take a flight and dine on all four Subway Deli Hero sandwiches at the blimp's stops in September: Kansas City (Sept. 5-7), Atlanta (Sept. 13-14), Orlando (Sept. 19-20) and Miami (Sept. 24 and 26). Sign up at register.subwayinthesky.com

You can also win a chance to attend the Super Bowl by playing the Subway in the Sky online game or scan a QR code in their local Subway restaurant for a chance to win and unlock special discounts on Deli Hero subs, like $5.99 footlongs or 15% off (must be 18 years of age or older; sweepstakes begins at 12 p.m. ET on Sept. 7 and ends at 11:59:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 30, 2023 on subwayinthesky.com.

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TGI Fridays has 25% off platters, trays and bundles for tailgating

To celebrate the NFL season's start, at TGI Fridays from Sept. 7-11, get 25% off platters, party trays, and family meal bundles — including wings, ribs, fried chicken, shrimp, potato skins, mozzarella sticks and other appetizers and dishes, plus desserts — when you use discount code KICKOFF25 on online or call-in takeout orders.

TGI Fridays has a season-long play for customers, too: a Game Pass Booklet ($20), which has 18 weekly coupons giving you $10 off any purchase throughout the season. On Monday nights, you can get 50-cent boneless or traditional wings with choice of sauce when you dine in from 5 p.m. to closing time. And TGI Friday's Happy Every Hour means $2 beers, $4 cocktails, and $5 wine on game days.

Wendy's and DoorDash free delivery with nacho cheeseburger

Wendy's has already kicked off the football season with two new menu items: the Loaded Nacho Cheeseburger and Queso Fries, both with roasted poblano queso. The cheeseburger comes on a jalapeño cheddar bun and sports a spicy chipotle sauce. (You can also order a Loaded Nacho Chicken Sandwich.)

Subscribers to DoorDash's DashPass service ($9.99/month or $96/year, which includes $0 delivery fees and other benefits) can get one of these items free with a minimum order of $20 through Sunday. Just add the item of your choice to your cart (while supplies last).

Wingstop's new Cajun Meal Deal

The restaurant chain has a new Cajun Meal Deal ($8.99-$13.99, depending on your choices) with either a chicken sandwich, classic wings, boneless wings or tenders, served with a smaller portion of fries — drizzled with melted cheese, ranch dressing and Cajun seasoning — and a drink. Available for a limited time nationwide on Wingstop.com and the the Wingstop app.

Wing Zone's NFL season-long 30 wings for $30 deal

Wing Zone is offering 30 of its Original Wings for $30 throughout the entire NFL season. Flavors included Chipotle BBQ, Buffalo Ranch, Thai Chili, Smokin Q (has a "cayenne kick") and Mango Fire.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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