NFL Network Moves Up 2008 Kickoff
League's Net Hosts Primetime Games Featuring Six Playoff Teams, While ESPN Has 11
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 4/16/2008 12:05:00 AM
This year, NFL Network can't play host to a team looking to complete a perfect regular-season: The National Football League's in-house service's third primetime season kicks off three weeks earlier than in the past and doesn’t include a contest on the final weekend. 
Whereas the service had inaugurated its eight-game packages on Thanksgiving during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, NFL Network fires off the scrimmage line Nov. 6, during the league’s 10th week with the Denver Broncos visiting the Cleveland Browns at 8:15 p.m. (ET).
Click here, to see the entire 2008 NFL schedule, which was released April 15.
This year’s Thanksgiving night contest -- the finale of a pro pigskin tripleheader -- pits the Arizona Cardinals at the Philadelphia Eagles, marking the first NFL “turkey day” game in the City of Brotherly Love since 1940
All of NFL Network’s games will be played on Thursdays at that time, save for its Baltimore Ravens-Dallas Cowboys finale on Saturday Dec. 20. Previously, NFL Network, whose 2008 schedule includes six playoff teams from last season, played out with five Thursday games and three on Saturdays. The Dec. 18 match-up of the Indianapolis Colts-Jacksonville Jaguars marks its only contest pitting post-season squads from last season.
Similarly, ESPN, the league's other cable carrier, hosts two such games within its 17-game Monday Night Football slate: the week 8 Colts-Tennessee Titans battle Oct. 27 and the Nov. 3 Pittsburgh Steelers-Washington Redskins meeting.
All told, ESPN’s games, which start at 8:30 p.m., feature 10 playoff teams, including three appearances by the Green Bay Packers, who enter the campaign without their retired legendary leader and quarterback Brett Favre. The Packers bookend ESPN’s schedule with the opener of its Sept. 8, week one doubleheader versus the Minnesota Vikings and in the Dec. 22, week 16 finale against ancient rival, the Chicago Bears. (All week 17 games are on Sunday this season). In between, Aaron Rodgers’ team squares off against the New Orleans Saints Nov. 24
The Steelers also appear twice on MNF versus the Baltimore Ravens Sept. 29 and in the aforementioned Redskins game in the nation’s capitol, the night before the presidential election.
ESPN also has the Super Bowl XLII combatants: the champion New York Giants take on the Browns Oct. 13, while the runner-up New England Patriots, whose undefeated season fell to Eli Manning and Plaxico Burress in the final minute of the championship game, host the Broncos the following week.
NFL Net Drop-Kicks Off-Season TV Deals
08/24/2009NFL Kicks Off Promotion For RedZone Channel
08/14/2009Outlook Dim for NFL Network, MSOs
11/22/2006NFL Network Gains Content Yardage
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