NFL announces schedule changes

NFL.com

NEW YORK (Oct. 10, 2001) -- The National Football League today announced the following changes to its 2001 schedule:

• The Sunday afternoon, Oct. 28 Indianapolis at Kansas City game on CBS-TV has been re-scheduled for Thursday night, Oct. 25 on ESPN (8:30 p.m. ET).
• The Oct. 28 New York Giants at Washington game, originally scheduled for ESPN at 8:30 p.m. ET, will kick off at 4:05 p.m. on FOX-TV. There will be no NFL game that night.

These changes were made to avoid a conflict with Game 2 of the World Series, which was moved back a week following the attacks of Sept. 11. The New York Giants at Washington game could not be re-scheduled for Thursday night, Oct. 25 because the Giants play on Monday night, Oct. 22. The NFL has traditionally played on the Thursday night preceding the start of the World Series rather than play Sunday night opposite the Series.

The new schedule for Week 7 of the season:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25
* Indianapolis at Kansas City, 8:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28
Cincinnati at Detroit, 1 p.m.
Jacksonville at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
Minnesota at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m.
New Orleans at St. Louis, 1 p.m.
NY Jets at Carolina, 1 p.m.
San Francisco at Chicago, 1 p.m.
Arizona at Dallas, 4:05 p.m.
** NY Giants at Washington, 4:05 p.m.
Buffalo at San Diego, 4:15 p.m.
Miami at Seattle, 4:15 p.m.
New England at Denver, 4:15 p.m.
Oakland at Philadelphia, 4:15 p.m.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29
Tennessee at Pittsburgh, 9 p.m.

Open date: Atlanta, Cleveland, Green Bay
(All times Eastern)
* Re-scheduled; ** New kickoff time

Week 17

The NFL also announced today the new kickoff times of its games of Week 17 on Jan. 6-7, 2002. Those games were originally scheduled for Sept. 16-17 (Week 2 of the original NFL schedule) but were postponed because of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The complete new schedule for the final week of the 2001 season, Week 17 (Jan. 6-7), now is as follows:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 6
Arizona at Washington, 1 p.m.
Cincinnati at Tennessee, 1 p.m.
* Cleveland at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m.
Dallas at Detroit, 1 p.m.
Denver at Indianapolis, 1 p.m.
Green Bay at NY Giants, 1 p.m.
* Jacksonville at Chicago, 1 p.m.
New England at Carolina, 1 p.m.
San Francisco at New Orleans, 1 p.m.
Atlanta at St. Louis, 4:05 p.m.
* Buffalo at Miami, 4:15 p.m.
Kansas City at Seattle, 4:15 p.m.
NY Jets at Oakland, 4:15 p.m.
* Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, 8:30 p.m.

* New kickoff times.

MONDAY, JANUARY 7
Minnesota at Baltimore, 9 p.m.

Open date: San Diego
(All times Eastern)

The NFL playoffs will begin on Jan. 12-13 with Wild Card Weekend. The AFC and NFC Divisional Playoffs will be on Jan. 19-20, the Conference Championship Games on Jan. 27, and Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans on Feb. 3. The AFC-NFC Pro Bowl will be played the weekend of Feb. 9-11.