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| Friday, April 13 ESPN.com news services | |||
NEW YORK – For the fourth straight season, the Denver
Broncos will open on Monday Night Football, this time for the first
regular-season game in their new stadium.
Denver will play host to the NFC champion New York Giants on
Sept. 10 at the new Invesco Field at Mile High. The Super Bowl
champion Baltimore Ravens, who open at home Sept. 9 against
Chicago, will play NFC runner-up Minnesota in Baltimore the
following Monday night.
The Miami Dolphins will face the Tennessee Titans in a Week 1 battle of defending AFC division winners to kick off ESPN's prime time coverage. The game will be Sunday, Sept. 9 in Nashville and is one of 18 carried by ESPN this season.
As usual, the best teams from last season got the most
prime-time slots – the Ravens and Giants each are on Monday Night
Football three times. Baltimore's last appearance, against Tampa
Bay, is actually on Saturday, Dec. 29 because Monday night is New
Year's Eve.
Tennessee at Oakland on Dec. 22 is also considered a Monday
night game so as not to conflict with Christmas.
St. Louis and Tennessee, the Super Bowl teams from two seasons
ago, are the only others with three Monday night games.
Denver, which won Super Bowls after the 1997 and 1998 seasons,
opened on Monday night with New England and Miami in 1998 and 1999,
winning both, then lost at St. Louis last season.
This time Denver's date is related more to the stadium opening.
It's the first time since 1995 – San Francisco was the defending
champion that year – that the the Super Bowl winner has not been in
the Monday night opener. Instead, the runner-up Giants will play the
Broncos.
Giants coach Jim Fassel noted the challenge that game presents
to the NFC champions.
"Maybe of all the games we play next year, that may be the
toughest environment," said Fassel, offensive coordinator for
Denver in 1993-94. "We understand all the trappings there. Denver.
A new stadium. 'Monday Night Football' opener, and all that. It may
be as difficult an environment as we play."
Other games of note include:
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