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FOR USE AS DESIRED MONDAY NIGHT KICKOFF: RESPECT OR REDEMPTION? America’s primetime passion premieres under the glow of the Gillette Stadium lights in Foxboro, Massachusetts this Monday night as two of the NFL’s elite battle with differing motivations. The reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots want to prove worthy of their label. The Pittsburgh Steelers seek redemption for a 2001 luxury-car regular season that ran out of gas in the postseason. The Monday night contest will be the third nationally televised primetime game of the NFL’s 2002 Kickoff Weekend, following the Thursday night San Francisco-New York Giants game, and the Dallas-Houston game of Sunday night. It follows the meeting of this past January 27 when more than 64,000 Steelers fans filled Heinz Field, eager to celebrate a Pittsburgh Super Bowl berth. What the Steel City received was a bitter pill in the form of a championship game loss to the team its Steelers face Monday night, the Patriots. The unheralded Patriots, of course, advanced to upset the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI and hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in parades across New England. “They are the world champions,” says Steelers wide receiver PLAXICO BURRESS. “We have a chip on our shoulder because we lost. It’s the first Monday night game of the year. You can’t ask for anything better than that.” Despite diamond-laden fingers, the Patriots feel like cold vegetables on a finicky child’s plate – overshadowed by eye-catching morsels and fancy desserts. “I don’t look at one team being so much better than another team,” says New England running back ANTOWAIN SMITH. “We have the mentality that our opponents need to worry about us. That’s the mentality we have this year.” On Monday, NFL Kickoff 2002 Weekend will conclude with a bang – and a “Pow!” and perhaps a “Boom!” or two – as ABC’s JOHN MADDEN – in his first regular-season MNF game -- and AL MICHAELS call the action. The longest running prime-time entertainment series in television history kicks off its 33rd season at the Patriots’ beautiful new home, 68,000-seat Gillette Stadium. "Heck, it's the Monday Night Football opener between the Patriots and Pittsburgh,” says Madden. “You have a new stadium, and the defending Super Bowl champions are playing a team that they beat in last season's AFC Championship Game. That's pretty doggone good to me. I know I can't wait to get up there." New England and Pittsburgh last opened a season against each other on a Monday night in 1979, when it was the Steelers who were coming off of a Super Bowl triumph (XIII, 35-31 over Dallas). Pittsburgh needed overtime to prevail against the hosting Patriots, 16-13, in old Schaefer Stadium. This week’s game marks the third time that a conference championship rematch has been scheduled for a Kickoff Weekend Monday night. The two previous rematches have gone down to the final minute: Season Defending Conference Champs Conference Championship Rematch on MNF Opener 2002 New England Patriots Pittsburgh Steelers at New England 1991 New York Giants NEW YORK GIANTS 16, San Francisco 49ers 14 1983 Washington Redskins Dallas Cowboys 31, WASHINGTON REDSKINS 30 ABC’s NFL Monday Night Football all-time records for the Patriots and Steelers:
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