September 12, 1997
No. 254
| ITEM ONE: | MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL OPENER TOP TV SHOW OF WEEK |
| ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football got off to a big start on Labor Day. The game between the Super Bowl XXXI champion Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears was the highest-rated television program of the week. The season premiere earned a 15.0 rating with 21.6 million viewers. ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football is the longest-running prime-time entertainment series in television history. | |
| ITEM TWO: | JACK KENT COOKE STADIUM DEBUTS -- NFL’s LARGEST OUTDOOR VENUE |
| The NFL’s largest outdoor stadium -- built in record time -- debuts this Sunday (9/14). JACK KENT COOKE STADIUM, named for the late owner of the Washington Redskins, hosts its first event when the Redskins play the Arizona Cardinals. The new stadium seats 80,116, making it the NFL’s biggest outdoor venue. The Pontiac Silverdome is largest overall with 80,368 seats. Cooke Stadium -- located in Raljon, Maryland -- was constructed in 17 1/2 months, a record for a project its size. The field is made of SportGrass, a mixture of natural Bermuda grass and synthetic turf that can withstand the rigors of NFL play and winter. Green Bay’s Lambeau Field and Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium are also equipped with SportGrass. Cooke Stadium is one of 18 NFL stadiums that have been built or renovated in the past five years or are scheduled for such development by 2002. | |
| ITEM THREE: | SUPER
BOWL III CHOSEN TOP NEW YORK SPORTS MOMENT For New York sports fans, it was a guarantee -- their favorite all-time sports moment was the New York Jets’ triumph in Super Bowl III. That was their choice in a poll of New York’s Top 100 Sports Moments that was announced this week. The second and third choices, respectively, were the Knicks’ first NBA championship in 1970, and the Rangers’ 1994 Stanley Cup title. On hand at Madison Square Garden to celebrate his team’s No. 1 status was former Jets quarterback JOE NAMATH, who, of course, guaranteed the team’s 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. |
| ITEM FOUR: | IN BYE WEEKS, NFL TEAMS SAY HELLO TO FANS |
| The third NFL weekend (September 14-15) starts the bye-week pattern in the NFL schedule. From Weeks 3-10, a number of teams each week are off. Time for family -- and the fans, including those in seven NFL cities who participate in the KMART NFL Family Days program that debuts this weekend in Jacksonville. Approximately 1,200 fans -- 300 families -- in each of seven NFL cities will visit their local NFL stadium and participate in the interactive program that includes non-contact football skills clinics, stadium tours, a tailgate party, and autograph sessions with NFL players. In each city, there will be morning and afternoon sessions, just like an NFL training camp. NFL cities on the schedule are Jacksonville (9/13); Dallas (9/20); Washington (9/20); Carolina (10/4); Oakland (10/11); New York Jets (10/25); and Detroit (11/15). | |