For the second time in four years, the Redskins and FedExField will be part of the NFL's annual kickoff weekend extravaganza. The league has announced that Washington's 2006 season opener will be against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. ET at FedExField.
The NFL will announce the full schedule sometime in April.
The Redskins-Vikings game will be part of the first regularly scheduled Monday Night Football games on ESPN. The Redskins-Vikings contest will be followed by an AFC West meeting between the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders at 10:15 p.m. ET.
Also, the NFL announced the Thanksgiving schedule and the Redskins are not part of the package of games that day. Earlier this offseason, there had been several published reports suggesting that the Redskins would take on the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving day.
For the fifth year in a row, the NFL will kick off its season on a Thursday night, with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast nationally on NBC.
Two other nationally televised games were announced by the NFL on Monday. On Sunday, Sept. 10, the Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Dallas Cowboys at 4:15 p.m. ET in a game broadcast by FOX. Later on Sunday, Sept. 10, the New York Giants will host the Indianapolis Colts--a matchup that features quarterback brothers Eli and Peyton Manning--at 8:15 p.m. ET on NBC.
The Thanksgiving day games are as follows: Miami at Detroit, 12:30 p.m. ET (CBS); Tampa Bay at Dallas, 4:15 p.m. ET (FOX); and Denver at Kansas City, 8 p.m. ET (NFL Network).
The Redskins and Vikings last played in January 2005 in the regular season finale for both teams. The Redskins won that contest at FedExField by a score of 21-18 and were led by the running of Ladell Betts, who had 118 rushing yards and one touchdown.
The Vikings have undergone significant change since that meeting. Brad Childress has taken over as head coach and the team has traded quarterback Daunte Culpepper to the Dolphins and wide receiver Randy Moss to the Oakland Raiders.
In September 2003, the Redskins were part of the NFL's kickoff weekend when they hosted the New York Jets in the nationally televised Thursday night game. The Redskins defeated the Jets 16-13.
