FOR USE AS DESIRED
NFL-48 9/18/01

NFL ANNOUNCES 16-GAME REGULAR SEASON WILL BE PLAYED;

WEEK 2 GAMES TO BE PLAYED ON WEEKEND OF JAN. 5-7

The NFL playing schedule that was postponed this past weekend will be played on the weekend of January 5-7 to retain a 16-game regular-season schedule, the league announced today.

“We believe that a full 16-game regular-season schedule is vital to our fans and the integrity of our season,” said NFL Commissioner PAUL TAGLIABUE. “Each team needs to be guaranteed the same number of home and away games plus an equal number of divisional games. The NFL Competition Committee was unanimous on that point.

“We continue to work on keeping six division winners, six Wild Cards and our entire postseason format intact. Several options have been presented to us in recent days that would help us accomplish that. We will review them and make a decision shortly. If we cannot resolve our entire postseason lineup in a satisfactory fashion, we then will go to a system of six division winners and two Wild Card teams for this one season only.

“Meanwhile, we wanted to confirm the 16-game schedule at this point so that our fans and teams could count on a full regular season.”

The Week 2 schedule of games that now will be played on the weekend of January 5-7 is as follows (some games may be switched to Saturday, January 5):

NFL SCHEDULE, JANUARY 5-7

(Dates and times TBA)

* SUNDAY, JANUARY 6

Arizona at Washington

Buffalo at Miami

Cincinnati at Tennessee

Dallas at Detroit

Denver at Indianapolis

Green Bay at NY Giants

New England at Carolina

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay

San Francisco at New Orleans

Atlanta at St. Louis

Jacksonville at Chicago

Kansas City at Seattle

NY Jets at Oakland

Cleveland at Pittsburgh

MONDAY, JANUARY 7

Minnesota at Baltimore

(San Diego has bye weekend)

*(some games may be moved to Saturday, January 5)