MNF Doubleheader...game in London?

Sports briefs

Briefs: NFL might stage Monday doubleheader

Paul J.Richards/Getty Images


NFL might stage Monday doubleheader

The NFL is considering an ESPN doubleheader for the opening Monday night of the 2006 NFL season on Sept. 11, one game beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern time and the second at 9 p.m., NFL representative Greg Aiello said Monday.

The season will most likely will start in Pittsburgh on Sept. 7, keeping with a recent trend of beginning the schedule with the current Super Bowl champion.

Aiello added the league is still open to a game overseas for 2006, perhaps in London's Wembley Stadium. The new schedule will be disclosed in April, although some games, such as the opener, might be announced earlier.

The Sept. 7 game will be the fifth straight Thursday opener. The first was in 2002 when San Francisco was at the New York Giants, in part to commemorate the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The proposed Monday night doubleheader would provide ESPN with a 17th game -- the league most likely is to go again without a game the final Monday night of the season.

Thursday and Saturday nights are now unavailable to ESPN because the NFL Network has picked up eight late-season games on those nights, beginning with Thanksgiving night.

 

Do season ticket holders get a refund for these games?And will ticketmaster charge you a "refund"fee?

 

This is getting very gay

 

Monday Night Football used to mean something. It was an event. We grind through our Mondays, knowing we were coming home to MNF. It's just become overkill now. Games on Thursdays. Saturdays. Doubleheaders on Monday nights. And games in Europe.

The overexposure has cheapened the value of Monday Night Football, in my view.

 

The day it was announced that MNF was leaving network television for ESPN, it immediately cheapened the value of it. They might as well finish the job now.