Dolphins at Steelers to open NFL season

[thestuman]

Dolphins at Steelers to open NFL season
Posted: 13 hours ago



ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A Thursday night season opener featuring Miami at Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh, and a Thanksgiving night game at Kansas City highlight a portion of the NFL schedule announced Monday.



The league's new tradition of opening on a Thursday night moves to NBC, which has taken over one of the prime-time television packages. The Dolphins, who finished 9-7 last season, will play at the Steelers on Sept. 7 at 8:30 p.m. EST.

NBC's first Sunday night matchup will be a brotherly quarterback feud between the Mannings as Peyton brings his Indianapolis Colts to the Meadowlands to play Eli and the Giants at 8:15 p.m. EST.

The main national TV doubleheader game for the full opening day Sept. 10 has Dallas at Jacksonville at 4:15 p.m. EST.

With ESPN taking over the Monday night package, the league scheduled a doubleheader for Sept. 11. Minnesota will visit Washington at 7 p.m. EST, followed by San Diego at Oakland at 10:15 p.m. EST.

That's an odd coupling. While the Redskins sell out every game and have led the NFL in attendance for six straight years, the Raiders rarely have a full stadium. That raises the potential for a blackout in the Bay Area for the game with the Chargers.

The Thanksgiving lineup features the Dolphins at Detroit at 12:30 p.m. EST, followed by Tampa Bay at Dallas at 4:15 p.m. EST. And the league has added a third holiday game, with the Broncos visiting the Chiefs at 8 p.m. EST.

The Chiefs used to host a Thanksgiving Day game in the AFL days and have long campaigned to host one in the NFL.

"I've thought all those games should be rotated," Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt said Monday. "But it's a plus for us to have the first one at night.

"We have a history in them. We always hosted them before the merger, and we've wanted to do it again."

The Broncos-Chiefs match will be the first live, in-season game on NFL Network, which will show eight prime-time games from Thanksgiving through the end of the season. Those games will be on either Thursday or Saturday nights.

"It ought to bring a great rating," Hunt said. "People will be worn out from all of their Thanksgiving Day activities, so they can sit down and enjoy the game."

The entire schedule will be released in early April.

[damac]

Hm... I can't wait for football season again.