Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990 TAG: 9004270870
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Washington Redskins and three other NFC East clubs have Sunday, Oct. 7, as their open week. The Redskins' dates include a Thanksgiving game at Dallas, two Saturday games in December and a Monday night appearance Nov. 12 at Philadelphia.
The Redskins open their season Sunday, Sept. 9, at RFK Stadium against Phoenix, then visit Super Bowl champion San Francisco.
Washington plays six of its eight NFC East games in the first eight weekends of the season. The Redskins' Sept. 30 visit to Phoenix will be a Sunday night telecast on cable's TNT.
Besides NFC East foes Philadelphia, Phoenix, Dallas and the New York Giants, the visitors to RFK Stadium are New Orleans, Miami, Chicago and Buffalo. The non-divisional road games for the Redskins are at San Francisco, Detroit, New England and Indianapolis.
Washington's Hoosier Dome game against the Colts is part of ABC's "Monday Night Football" package, but will be played Saturday, Dec. 22. The NFL did not want to schedule games on Christmas Eve, said Val Pinchbeck, the league's vice president of broadcasting.
The NFL scheduled its "bye" dates for four clubs each in weeks 4-8, 10 and 14. The open dates were broken down by division, with the 1989 last-place clubs in the five-team divisions (New York Jets, San Diego, Dallas and Tampa Bay) sitting out Week 14.
Turner Broadcasting's TNT, which has a Sunday night telecast package in the first nine weeks of the season, has a game Thursday, Oct. 18, moved up three days to avoid conflict with the World Series. The Series later was pushed back after schedules were redrawn following baseball's spring-training lockout.
The NFL also pushed up the start times for Oct. 7 and 14 Sunday night games on TNT to 7:30 p.m. to get a half-hour head start on potential baseball playoff games on those dates.
All 28 NFL teams will make at least one appearance on either the Sunday night games on TNT or ESPN or ABC's Monday night schedule. The extra week of games also means TV doubleheaders will be played the last three Saturdays in December instead of the last two.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on December 12, 1990
According to the official 1985 "National Football League Record and Fact Book," the date the New York Giants last allowed a safety before last Sunday's game was Sept. 30, 1984, against the Los Angeles Rams. Because of incorrect information supplied by The Associated Press, the date was wrong in Monday's editions.
Memo: CORRECTION