Friday, April 13
Dolphins to meet Titans in ESPN opener



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:

  • Tennessee visits Jacksonville in Week 3, while Tampa Bay and Minnesota meet for the first time in Week 4.

  • Buffalo visits Doug Flutie and San Diego on Oct. 28.

  • Green Bay visits Detroit and Denver is at Dallas on Thanksgiving day.

  • Tampa Bay at St. Louis, Monday, Nov. 26, in a rematch last year's MNF thriller in which the Bucs won 38-35.

  • Philadelphia at Kansas City, Thursday, Nov. 29, in which Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil faces his former team.

  • On the last Sunday of the season, Buffalo visits the Jets, Minnesota is at Green Bay and Oakland is at Denver in what could possibly be division deciding games.

    Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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  • ALSO SEE
    2001 NFL weekly schedule

    Clayton: Best subplots of 2001 season

    2001 preseason TV schedule

    User feedback: 2001 Schedule

    ESPN 2001 NFL Schedule


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