Giants-Saints Set to Play Sept. 19

The game between the New York Giants and New Orleans Saints, driven from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, will be played as part of a nationally televised doubleheader starting at 7:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 19, it was announced Monday.

The game, already moved to the Meadowlands in New Jersey, the Giants’ home field, will begin on ABC and then switched to ESPN at 9 p.m., when ABC goes to the regularly scheduled game between Washington and Dallas at Irving, Texas. In New York and Louisiana, as well as other parts of the Gulf Coast, ABC will continue to carry the Giants-Saints game, switching to Redskins and Cowboys when the Saints’ game ends.

The NFL said fund-raising efforts for hurricane relief will be intertwined in the telecasts of both games.

Saint Coach Jim Haslett, already miffed at losing a home game, found it curious the NFL would allow this game to overlap with the already scheduled Monday night game.

“I really don’t know why they’re doing it,” Haslett said, rolling his eyes.

The Meadowlands is playing host to a soccer game Sept. 17 and the New York Jets play the Miami Dolphins there Sept. 18.

The Saints are still waiting for a decision where they’ll play the remaining seven games scheduled for the Superdome. The candidates are Louisiana State, the Saints’ preferred choice; the Alamodome in San Antonio, where the Saints are living and practicing, or playing all of their games on the road.

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Seattle Seahawk defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes has been hospitalized by team doctors and is undergoing tests, Coach Mike Holmgren said.

Holmgren, who would not specify the nature of Rhodes’ illness, said linebackers coach John Marshall would fill in as defensive coordinator if Rhodes is not available for the Seahawks’ opener at Jacksonville on Sunday.

Rhodes, 54, is in his 25th season as an NFL coach and his third as Seattle’s defensive coordinator. He was coach of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1995 to 1998 and coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1999.

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Receiver Peerless Price signed a one-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys, receiving a $500,000 bonus and a salary of about $1 million, with about another $1 million available in incentives.

Receiver Quincy Morgan was cut to clear a roster spot.