Raiders get ESPN's first Monday night

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Mar 28, 2006 | by Bill Soliday, STAFF WRITER

Whether they go 5-11 or finish 4-12, the NFL has apparently decided the Oakland Raiders still are a hot TV item.

The league announced Monday that for the second year in a row, the Raiders will open the season in prime time. This time, they will be at home to face the San Diego Chargers in a precedent-setting Monday night game Sept.11.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. local time, making it the latest regular season starting time in league history.

It also will be the second game of a new experiment, an NFL Monday Night doubleheader expressly designed for new Monday night presenter ESPN. Minnesotafaces Washington at 4 p.m. in the lead-in to the Raiders-Chargers game.

Last year, the Raiders opened the NFL's season by traveling to New England to face the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots on a Thursday night. New England won 30-20.

This will mark the third time in four years the Raiders have opened the season with a game in prime time. In 2003, Oakland traveled to Tennessee for a Sunday night opener they lost to the Titans 25-20.

Although the Raiders have played in prime time on the season's opening week six times, this will mark the first time it has been a home game.

Their record in opening week night games is 1-5. Their only victory in a night opener came in 1975 when they won in Miami 31- 21.

In other opening week night games they lost 21-20 at Buffalo in 1974, 17-13 at Denver in 1992, and 44-14 at San Francisco in 1994.

Although the game is designed to make a big splash for the opening of ESPN's Monday exposure, the likelihood of it being shown locally is problematic.

The Raiders, who have 29 sellouts and 59 blackouts since returning to Oakland in 1995, have not sold out a game against the Chargers since 1995. Raiders-Chargers contests have failed to achieve a TV sellout 10 straight times since.

However, in Monday night contests, the Raiders are a perfect 7- for-7 on sellouts and all but two of 14 night games the team has played at home since 1995 have been televised. The only two that weren't were last season's finale on a Saturday against the New York Giants and a Sunday night game in 1996 against the Minnesota Vikings.

The NFL announcement was made at the league meetings in Orlando, Fla., and included only plans for the 2006 opening weekend and Thanksgiving games.

In the official season opener, Thursday, Sept.7, Miami will play at Pittsburgh on NBC.

EXTRA POINTS: The Raiders have been awarded one compensatory draft pick, and it will be the last pick taken on April 30, the second day of the selection process -- No.255 overall. The final four picks are supplemental compensatory picks to fulfill the number of draft choices permitted by agreement with the NFL Players Association in the collective bargaining agreement. ... The first compensatory pick, the first in the third round, No.33 overall, has been awarded to the New York Jets. The loss of RB LaMont Jordan to Oakland along with TE Anthony Becht (Tampa Bay), DT Jason Ferguson (Dallas) and T Kareem McKenzie (New York Giants) led to the award for the Jets.