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November 25, 2007

Prime time players

BY JIM DONALDSON
Journal Sports Writer

FOXBORO -- Bill Parcells, who owns a home in Saratoga because he enjoys spending time at the track in the summer, once named one of his racehorses Sunday At One -- the time NFL teams start most of their games.

If Patriots owner Robert Kraft ever gets into the thoroughbred racing game, he'll have to name his first horse Nighttime.

Or, perhaps, Prime Time.

With last Sunday's switch of the Bills game in Buffalo from 1 o'clock to 8:15 to accommodate NBC, the Pats reached the league maximum of six prime-time telecasts, including next Monday night's game at Baltimore, and their season-ending, Saturday night game against the Giants at the Meadowlands.

The Patriots haven't played a game at 1 o'clock since Oct. 21, at Miami. Tonight is the second of three straight night games for New England, which previously played two straight games that started at 4:15.

They also host the Steelers at 4:15 on Dec. 9, then are scheduled for back-to-back, 1 o'clock kickoffs in Foxboro against the Jets and Dolphins, although both of those games are subject to the NFL's new flex-scheduling adjustments and could be moved to 4:15.

Even if those games do kickoff at 1, the Patriots still will have had only six games all season start at that time.

Posted by Jim Donaldson  at 7:41 PM | Permalink