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Titans-Bills reprise 'miracle' matchup Broncos-Rams to open 2000 season on Monday
Posted: Tuesday April 04, 2000 07:51 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Denver Broncos and St. Louis Rams, the last two Super Bowl champions, will open the 2000 NFL season in St. Louis on Monday night Sept. 4. That game and a Sunday night meeting in Buffalo between the Bills and the Tennessee Titans highlight the first weekend of the NFL season. That second game is a reprise of the "Music City Miracle" in the first round of last season's playoffs, won by the Titans on a last-play lateral and kickoff return. They later beat Indianapolis and Jacksonville and went on to the Super Bowl, where they lost to the Rams. The Rams' opening game will be their first Monday night appearance since 1991, the beginning of a decade of futility that ended when they turned a 4-12 1998 record into an NFL title last season. This will be the third straight season that Denver, which slipped to 6-10 last season after two straight Super Bowl victories, has opened on a Monday night. The NFL was hurt last year by poor prime-time matchups late in the season because of the demise of several traditional powers. The league wants to ensure that won't happen again. For the 2001 season, the league is considering leaving some Monday nights open late in the year so it can show games with the most interest. The next-to-last Monday night game for the upcoming season features St. Louis at Tampa Bay, a rematch of last season's NFC title game, which was played in St. Louis. The final game, on Christmas night, pits Dallas at the Titans -- the Cowboys always get an audience even if they are mediocre. Another note of the volatility of the schedule. San Francisco, which fell to 4-12 last season after nearly two decades of dominance, does not have a prime-time game for the first time since 1981, the year they won the first of five Super Bowls.
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