NFL Sets Opening Weekend Schedule

New season to kick off Sept. 4 on NBC with New York Giants vs. Washington Redskins

By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/31/2008 6:09:00 PM

The National Football League picked baseball’s opening day to announce the national primetime schedule for the first weekend of the football season.

The season will kick off Thursday, September 4, when the Super Bowl champion New York Giants host the Washington Redskins on NBC at 7 pm ET.

The game was moved up 90 minutes due to the Republican National Convention, which NBC News is slated to cover on the network following football.

NBC’s first Sunday night game is set for September 7, when the Chicago Bears visit the Indianapolis Colts at 8:15 pm ET.

ESPN will kick its Monday Night Football regular season off the following night with a 7: 00 pm ET doubleheader that opens with the Minnesota Vikings travelling to Green Bay to face the Packers in what could be their first game without quarterback and local legend Brett Favre. 

The second game has the Oakland Raiders hosting the Denver Broncos at 10:15 pm ET.

ESPN’s main crew of Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser will call the first game, and the network has yet to announce who will call the nightcap.

The NFL expects to release the rest of its schedule sometime in April.