NFL season begins Thursday, Sept. 5

Friday, March 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ A new-look NFL will start its season with a Thursday night game for the first time and end its opening weekend with a Monday night appearance by the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

The 256-game schedule released Thursday includes a Sept. 5 game with the San Francisco 49ers playing at the New York Giants. The Thursday night opener will be shown on ESPN.

With the addition of an expansion team in Houston, the league has realigned into eight divisions of four teams each. Following the 49ers-Giants opener, the expansion Houston Texans open their first season on Sunday night in their new stadium against the Dallas Cowboys, one of 14 games that day.

The first weekend concludes with the Patriots opening their new stadium against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night. That will be the first of four prime-time appearances for the Patriots. They play in Oakland on Sunday night, Nov. 17, at Tennessee on Monday night, Dec. 16 and at home against the New York Jets on Sunday night, Dec. 22.

There had been some sentiment for leaving ABC's Monday night late season schedule flexible so that more attractive games could be moved, but that plan was dismissed when CBS and Fox networks complained.

The Monday night schedule includes the New York Jets at Oakland on Dec. 2, a rematch of their first-round playoff game. Also set for Monday night are Philadelphia at Washington, Sept. 16; St. Louis at Tampa Bay, Sept. 23; Denver at Baltimore, Sept. 30; Miami at Green Bay, Nov. 4; Oakland at Denver, Nov. 11; and San Francisco at St. Louis, Dec. 30.