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| Green Bay Packers |
If the owners’ lockout ends on time, the Green Bay Packers will open the N-F-L regular season against New Orleans on Thursday night, September eighth at Lambeau Field. The league announced its 17-week schedule yesterday. And as always, the defending Super Bowl champions will host the league’s debut on N-B-C, and they’ll face the previous year’s champion Saints. It’s one of four nationally-televised night games for the Packers – who will also have five 3:15 contests on Sunday afternoons. Green Bay will only play six games in the relative obscurity of a Sunday noon start, although coach Mike McCarthy likes those days the best. But he doesn’t mind the later starts and the national exposure, either. One thing McCarthy’s not crazy about is playing three games in 11 days around Thanksgiving. There’s a Monday night home contest against Minnesota on November 14th, following by a home game against Tampa Bay on Sunday the 20th and then the early Thanksgiving game at Detroit on the 24th. In fact, the Packers are the first team in N-F-L history to play on all three holidays during the season. They’ll play the Christmas Night N-B-C game on Sunday, December 25th – and they’ll host Detroit at noon on New Year’s Day to close out the season. The Pack will play seven games before having their bye on October 30th. Super Bowl-46 is set for February 5th in Indianapolis.
