NFL 2003 Season Kicks Off

The NFL's 17-week, 256-game regular-season schedule for 2003 begins as it did last year, in prime-time on a Thursday night (September 4), with the NFL’s "Kickoff Celebration II" entertainment event in prime-time followed by the nationally televised New York Jets at Washington Redskins game (ABC, 9:00 PM ET).

From that point on, the excitement builds. Some -- but far from the only -- key games in the NFL’s 17 weeks of 2003.

In the finales of Kickoff Weekend, the Oakland Raiders will visit the Tennessee Titans on Sunday night, September 7 on ESPN in a rematch of the 2002 AFC Championship Game. On Monday night, it will be a replay of last year’s NFC Championship as the Super Bowl XXXVII-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers travel to the Philadelphia Eagles on ABC.

The Sunday and Monday night games mark the first time that nationally televised prime-time rematches of the previous season’s championship games close out Kickoff Weekend.

On October 5 on FOX when the Arizona Cardinals play the Dallas Cowboys, EMMITT SMITH, the NFL’s all-time rushing leader, will return to Texas Stadium, where he built and set the record.

On October 19 on CBS, the New England Patriots will play at the Miami Dolphins. The game will be a replay of last year’s Week 17 playoff-implication squeaker won by the Patriots in overtime, 27-24.

ABC will have two prime-time games on Kickoff Weekend (Thursday and Monday nights) for a season total of 17 primetime games (the opening Thursday night kickoff and 16 Monday Night Football games). As a result, no Monday night game will be scheduled for the league’s final weekend of December 27-28 (Week 17). The elimination of the final Monday night game will, in turn, serve to enhance the flexibility of scheduling the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs.

ESPN will televise Saturday night games in Weeks 16 and 17, resulting in Saturday national TV triple-headers on those weekends. On Saturday, December 20, Atlanta visits Tampa Bay at 1:30 PM ET on FOX, and Kansas City plays at Minnesota at 5:00 PM ET on CBS. That night at 8:30 PM ET, New England will play at the New York Jets on ESPN. The next Saturday, December 27, Buffalo plays at New England on CBS at 1:30 PM ET, Seattle is in San Francisco on FOX at 5:00 PM ET, and Philadelphia travels to Washington at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN.

The traditional nationally televised Thanksgiving Day doubleheader on Thursday, November 27 will feature Green Bay at Detroit (FOX, 12:30 PM ET) and Miami at Dallas (CBS, 4:05 PM ET).

With the NFL’s 32 teams each playing 16 games over 17 weeks of the schedule, byes are scheduled for Weeks 3 through 10, with four different teams having byes in each of those weeks.

The 2003 playoffs will include four division winners and two wild cards from each conference. The playoffs begin with Wild Card Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, January 3-4. The two division winners with the best records in each conference will have the weekend off.

The Wild Card Weekend winners join the top four AFC and NFC division champions in the Divisional Playoffs on Saturday and Sunday, January 10-11.

The AFC and NFC Championship Games will be played on Sunday, January 18. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 1 in Houston in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

The postseason concludes with the AFC All-Stars vs. the NFC All-Stars in the Pro Bowl on Sunday, February 8 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Fifty-eight regular-season games are designated for national television. CBS or FOX will televise a Sunday doubleheader game to most of the nation each week. CBS will televise nine Sunday doubleheaders and FOX eight this year.

CBS will televise the AFC, the AFC playoffs, the AFC Championship Game and Super Bowl XXXVIII. FOX will present NFC games, the NFC playoffs and the NFC Championship Game. The 64 AFC-NFC interconference games (excluding prime time) are carried by CBS when the AFC team is the visitor and by FOX when the NFC team is visiting. All postseason games are televised nationally.

In addition to its Monday night package, ABC will televise a Wild Card playoff doubleheader on Saturday, January 3. ABC concludes the NFL season with the Pro Bowl on February 8.

ESPN will televise 16 Sunday night games, and two Saturday night games. By NFL policy, ESPN games also will be carried on free, over-the-air television in the city of the visiting team and in the city where the game is played if it is sold out 72 hours in advance of kickoff.

The NFL is the only sports league that carries all regular-season and postseason games on free, over-the-air television.

 

 

NFL 2003 Season Kicks Off