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In 2006, NBC acquired the television rights to the Kickoff Game as part of their Sunday Night Football package. Because of the success of the first game, the rights to televise both the Kickoff Game and the pregame concert were transferred immediately after the season to ABC as part of their Monday Night Football package. In order to do so, ESPN eliminated its traditional late-October Thursday night game (held the weekend of Games 1 and 2 of the World Series), and replaced it with the opening night kickoff game. It was considered a success, increasing NFL sponsorships by $1.9 billion over the next 14 months. It was conceived as an effort to boost economic recovery in the New York and Washington areas in the wake of 9/11. The Kickoff Game was introduced in the 2002 season, under the leadership of then–NFL marketing executive John Collins and then–NFL Senior Vice President of Special Events Jim Steeg. The logo for the 2002 concert event before the Kickoff game. From 2004 onward, the defending Super Bowl champion has hosted the Kickoff Game with a couple of exceptions-in 2013, the defending champion Baltimore Ravens opened on the road because of a conflict with a previously scheduled Orioles baseball game the same day, and in 2019, the defending champion New England Patriots did not play at all in the Kickoff Game as the league instead scheduled the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears for that game to celebrate its 100th season of operation.
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The Kickoff Game was introduced in the 2002 season. The remainder of the league plays their opening weekend games the following Sunday and Monday. However, in 2012, the game was moved to Wednesday to prevent conflicts with the acceptance speech of the Democratic National Convention. This first game of the season is usually scheduled for the Thursday following Labor Day and since 2004, it has been hosted by the current Super Bowl champions. A single game is held, preceded by a concert and other ceremonies. A pair of unproven backs in D’Ernest Johnson and Demetric Felton will be tasked with navigating through Denver’s elite front.The National Football League Kickoff game, along with related festivities, marks the official start of the National Football League (NFL) regular season. 1 in rushing offense with 168.5 yards per game, but will be missing both its top running backs with Chubb and Hunt sidelined.
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#Thursday night football kickoff time full#
The spread on this Thursday Night Football clash opened with the Browns laying a full touchdown.
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