Kicking off with rematch

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- For Bill Polian, the kickoff of the NFL season will be more than a game. It will be a measuring stick for his Indianapolis Colts.

On the first full day of the annual NFL owners meetings at the Breakers Hotel yesterday, commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced the 2004 season will begin Thursday night, Sept. 9, with a rematch of the AFC Championship game between the Patriots and Colts at Gillette Stadium. For Patriots coach Bill Belichick, the announcement was a predictable case of "we don't make the schedule," but to Colts president Polian, it is a renewed chance for his team to measure itself against the Super Bowl champions, who knocked Indianapolis out of the playoffs last January.

"It's an opportunity to show what we can do on national television and to renew what is becoming a pretty good rivalry," Polian said. "It'll be a thrill. You can't find a better setting than New England in September.

"They won both games [last year] fair and square. They're the better team right now. It's a game to prove we're in their class."

This will mark the fifth straight season the Colts have opened the year on the road. They are 4-0 in the last four. The Patriots last opened the season at home in 2002, with a 30-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was also a night game and also represented a rematch of the previous season's AFC title game.

On the 2004 season's opening weekend, Fox (Channel 25) will have the national doubleheader game on Sunday at 4:15 p.m. with the Dallas Cowboys facing the Minnesota Vikings. That evening, ESPN will have the Denver Broncos playing host to the Kansas City Chiefs. The first Monday night game will have the NFC champion Carolina Panthers hosting the Green Bay Packers.

Also yesterday, Steelers owner Dan Rooney announced that the league's Compensation Committee had recommended an extension of Tagliabue's contract for up to three more years. That proposal was approved by a 32-0 vote of the league's owners. Tagliabue's present contract was not set to expire until May 2005.

"He's taken the league to new levels," said Rooney. "His relationship with the NFL Players Association is terrific. What he brings is integrity, which is the most important thing we have. It's the essential thing we have."

NFL Competition Committee co-chairs Jeff Fisher and Rich McKay discussed an array of proposals that may be voted upon by the owners tomorrow, but one issue that will not be voted on apparently was deeply debated by the committee. It involved "phantom injuries" such as the one that may have been sustained by New England's Willie McGinest in a regular-season victory over the Colts in Indianapolis. Late in the game, McGinest went down, apparently with a leg injury, at a time when the Patriots were out of timeouts and the Colts' momentum was mounting. Play was stopped as McGinest left the field, but he soon reentered and made several stirring plays.

After McGinest and nose tackle Ted Washington made a gargantuan play on fourth down to stop the Colts on the goal line and preserve the victory, several Colts questioned whether McGinest had faked the injury to stop the clock and allow New England's reeling defense to regroup. McGinest and the Patriots denied the charge.

Fisher mentioned that play as one that was reviewed by the Competition Committee but he did not say whether or not he felt McGinest's actions were illegal. He did, however, say that all the league's head coaches had been urged by the committee "to abide by the rules."

"It's a palpably unfair act," Fisher said of any faked injury used to compensate for an absence of timeouts. "It's unsportsmanlike conduct."

In other news of the day, the Chiefs withdrew their proposal to increase the playoff field by two teams.