An Erie Start to NFL’s Schedule

The new Cleveland Browns begin with an old rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In prime time, no less.

The 1999 NFL schedule, released Thursday, has the expansion Browns, created to replace the team that left for Baltimore after the 1995 season, entertaining the Steelers Sept. 12. The game against the team that was the old Browns’ hated rival will begin at 5:20 p.m. PDT and be televised by ESPN.

But that may be a precursor to Cleveland’s Nov. 7 game that brings in the old Browns, now the Baltimore Ravens, and their owner, Art Modell, an archvillain in Cleveland.

The season opens a week later this year because of the calendar, which would have playoff games clashing with college bowl games if the NFL had its traditional Labor Day start. One result of that will be only a one-week break between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, to be played Jan. 30 at Atlanta.

The Atlanta Falcons also are in one of the first week’s top games, at home against the Minnesota Vikings, whom they upset in January in the NFC championship game. Another highlight comes Thanksgiving, when Jimmy Johnson returns to Dallas for the first time with the Miami Dolphins.

Another change is a return of the 6 p.m. PDT starting time for Monday night games, the first of which will be Miami at two-time Super Bowl champion Denver Sept. 13. If John Elway returns, it would be the third meeting since last December of quarterbacks Elway and Dan Marino, who had opposed each other only once in their first 15 seasons.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said returning them to 6 p.m. was a joint decision between the league and the network.

The addition of Cleveland gives the NFL 31 teams, which means at least one must be off every week.

For the most part, teams that finished last season with poor records got late byes on the assumption they wouldn’t contend for playoff berths--Philadelphia (3-13) is off the next-to-last week and Cincinnati (3-13) the previous week.

Unlike previous seasons, bye weeks aren’t grouped by divisions but are at random.

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The NFL Expansion Committee, comprising 14 of the league’s 31 owners, will visit Los Angeles on April 20 to tour potential stadium sites at the Coliseum and in the city of Carson.

The committee will then eliminate one of the sites and begin work on cobbling together a financial deal in time to meet a Sept. 15 NFL deadline. The league has said it will pursue a stadium offer in Houston if unable to come to terms on a new stadium in Los Angeles.

The league has no immediate plans to focus on a potential owner for an expansion team to play in Los Angeles beginning in 2002, saying a stadium deal remains its priority.

* Schedule, Page 12