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The NFL announced its 2006 Kickoff Weekend nationally televised schedule

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Five games featured on opening weekend, three games on Thanksgiving

(March 27, 2006) -- The NFL announced its 2006 Kickoff Weekend nationally televised schedule -- including a Monday night doubleheader -- and its Thanksgiving Day national TV tripleheader.

In a tradition instituted in 2004, the Super Bowl champion annually hosts the NFL Thursday night season kickoff the following year. This Sept. 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET, the Super Bowl XL champion Pittsburgh Steelers will oppose the Miami Dolphins as NBC rejoins the NFL's TV family for the first time since 1997. The game will feature a quarterback matchup of Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger and the Dolphins' Daunte Culpepper, acquired recently from Minnesota in a trade.

On Sunday, Sept. 10, the FOX national doubleheader game at 4:15 p.m. ET will feature the Dallas Cowboys at the Jacksonville Jaguars, who finished 12-4 and earned a playoff spot last season

The Sunday night primetime game (8:15 p.m. ET) on NBC can be called the "Manning Bowl" and it will be a history-maker. The AFC South champion Indianapolis Colts will visit the NFC East titlist New York Giants. It will be a matchup of quarterback brothers -- the Colts' 30-year-old Peyton Manning against his sibling, 25-year-old Eli Manning of the Giants. It will be the first time in NFL history that brothers will start at quarterback against each other.

Monday night, Sept. 11, will feature the first regularly scheduled Monday Night Football game on ESPN, and the first regularly scheduled Monday Night Football doubleheader. The first game (7 p.m. ET) will pit the Minnesota Vikings, under new head coach Brad Childress, at the Washington Redskins, an '05 Divisional Playoff team. The Monday night "nightcap" (10:15 p.m. ET) will be an AFC West meeting of the San Diego Chargers, directed by new starting quarterback Philip Rivers, at the Oakland Raiders, also led by a new coach, Pro Football Hall of Famer Art Shell.

On Sunday, Sept. 10, CBS, which has U.S. Open tennis in the late afternoon slot, will carry a lineup of early regional NFL games. CBS will televise the NFL national doubleheader late game in Week 2.

The NFL will kick off its new late-season primetime television package on NFL Network on Thanksgiving night, giving NFL fans three games on Thanksgiving Day for the first time.

The early game that day (CBS, 12:30 p.m. ET) will feature the Dolphins at the Detroit Lions, under new head coach Rod Marinelli. The second game (FOX, 4:15 p.m. ET) will send the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Dallas to face the Cowboys.

The Thanksgiving package concludes at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network when the top two teams in the AFC West last year meet. The Denver Broncos (13-3) will visit the Kansas City Chiefs (10-6).

The announcement of these national TV games was made March 27 by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue at the NFL Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla.

The rest of the 2006 regular-season schedule will be finalized and announced in April.

While I like the idea of a third Thanksgiving game, I'd like it more were they to retire the notion of always having Dallas and Detroit stinking it up every year. But I don't like the third game being some NFL Network only offering. I think the NFL recognizes that football will never be a pay per view attraction, but they are going to fuck with shit until they have the playoffs as well as the Superbowl where you have to have a cable provider or dish network subscription to see key games and interesting matchups.

I agree, it is unfortunate that the game is only shown on the NFL Network. I was thinking about buying the direct tv NFL Ticket this year because the games Fox and CBS televised this year weren't the greatest. I would rather have the option of watching the premiere match up every week (in addition to my favorite teams), but the package costs a pretty penny.

Despite the poor officiating in the lackluster playoffs, I am still stoked for the season to begin.

Didn't they also announce that there would be more Thursday games this year? That's annoying as well. I know, it's a business, but the NFL is already hugely profitable (isn't it?), and pushing games to premium cable seems like it will only alienate fans.

I'm not sure about the Thursday games. To a certain extent I would like to see a Thursday game here and there. As long as they were network TV or basic cable it wouldn't be a real killer to most people. I know they did discuss making Monday night games where the schedule could be changed to keep two stinkers from screwing MNF out of ratings and again I think that that wouldn't be half bad.

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Originally Posted by Psycho Dad

I know they did discuss making Monday night games where the schedule could be changed to keep two stinkers from screwing MNF out of ratings and again I think that that wouldn't be half bad.

Of course, switching a game would screw over those people who bought tickets for a game, only to have the date switched on them.

No doubt. But will the NFL really take that under consideration? Most NFL teams have long waiting lists for season ticket holders and there is an assload of money to be made from luxury boxes. And if moving a clinker off the schedule from Monday to somewhere on Sunday looks like it will make some TV dollars for the league I don't know if they will consider the average Joe that buys tickets.

Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I think the NFL network will actually hurt the NFL (in the long run) and the decision to broadcast a Thanksgiving game of the NFL network, to obviously promote it, is going to segment the NFL viewing audience. Not everyone has the NFL network.

Well the NFL has announced its plans to anally rape the average American football fan by placing several primetime NFL matches out of the reach of anyone not subscribing to The NFL Network.

As already mentioned, it starts on Thanksgiving, and just keeps getting worse. The NFL Network's regular-season game schedule features eight late-season games on Thursday and Saturday nights as part of the NFL's new "Run Up to the Playoffs" national package. Without offering anything of interest to most football fans, the NFL hopes to fuck the hell out of by making us either pay up or run off to a sports bar to see games that may possibly have playoff implications.

I think you will find that the next time television contracts come up for review, there will be playoff games televised only on the NFL Network. After that, The Superbowl. The NFL and the NFL owners are going to make crybaby MLB players look dignified.

2006 National Football League National Television Schedule

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Thursday, Nov. 23 Denver at Kansas City (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Thursday, Nov. 30 Baltimore at Cincinnati (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Thursday, Dec. 7 Cleveland at Pittsburgh (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Thursday, Dec. 14 San Francisco at Seattle (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Saturday, Dec. 16 Dallas at Atlanta (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Thursday, Dec. 21 Minnesota at Green Bay (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Saturday, Dec. 23 Kansas City at Oakland (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

Saturday, Dec. 30 N.Y. Giants at Washington (8 p.m. ET, NFL Network)

And they will likely reschedule some Sunday evening primetime games under their new "flexible" schedule so redlemon, everything that you can expect bad to come from this is likely going to come to reality.

Does anyone here get the NFL network? Just wondering if they still have TV timeouts and commercials.

In today's Andy Rooney syndicated column, he was complaining (imagine that!) about the letter he got from the NY Giants regarding his season tickets. One of the items confirmed that a series of games were "scheduled for 1:00, but were subject to being changed to 4:30 or 8:00". (I can't find the column online, it was in my morning paper.)

Bastards.

From the way it is looking (and I may be looking at it wrong) the flex schedule is going to move Sunday afternoon games to Sunday night and not horse with the Monday games. And by the looks of it, this is going to be a great thing for Denver fans (which I am not).