NCAAbbs

SportsTicker
NEW YORK -- Peyton Manning knew he would be on stage facing the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots in the Thursday prime time opener. He found out Wednesday that he also will be working on Thanksgiving Day.

The NFL announced its 17-week, 256-game regular season schedule, whick kicks off with the Patriots hosting the Indianapolis Colts on September 9 in a rematch of the AFC championship game and concludes on Sunday, January 2.

The opening Monday night game will have the NFC champion Carolina Panthers hosting Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. But for the second straight year, there will be no Monday night game on the final regular season weekend, enhancing the flexibility of scheduling the opening weekend of the playoffs.

The traditional Thanksgiving Day doubleheader will feature Manning and the Colts at Detroit and the Dallas Cowboys will host the Chicago Bears. Dallas will also play the final regular season Sunday night game, visiting the New York Giants.

A Friday afternoon game will be held on December 24 when the Packers visit the Minnesota Vikings.

There have been only eight Christmas Day games in NFL history but there will be two this season as the Kansas City Chiefs meet the Oakland Raiders in the afternoon and Tennessee Titans host the Denver Broncos at night.

The playoffs begin with wild card weekend on January 8-9.

<a href='http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/schedule?year=2004' target='_blank'>http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/schedule?year=2004</a>

the NFL is such a joke. The giants have the easiest schedule i've ever seen. Terpy once told me there wasn't much difference between the schedules of the worst team in the NFC East and the best team in the NFC East. Sorry Terpy, i'm gonna have to disagree with you on that. Look at the Eagles' schedule, and look at the Giants' schedule.

The Panthers had an easy schedule last year, and see what they did

raptorcox Wrote:The Panthers had an easy schedule last year, and see what they did

that's what i'm saying. A lot of teams get the easy schedule, and with the help of momentum and a lot of overrated teams, they go to the super bowl, or at least the championship games.

gotcha

Bengals have at Tenn, at Philly, and at new england :cuss: that sucks



but they are playing a monday night game i can't believe it

Fanatical,
How can I get Bengals tickets? They don't offer on their website unless you get the millionaire package. I just want to go to the Dallas game.

Thanks for any help.

Fanatical Wrote:they are playing a monday night game i can't believe it

The last time the bengals played a Monday Night game was before I can remember...Anyone know the year...The Bengals also have a Sunday Night game which is pretty impressive.

I am liking the Texans schedule. Chargers, Lions, Raiders, Bears, and Jets is pretty generous.