Patriots open ’17 season at home
One of the spoils of being champion: The New England Patriots will kick off the NFL season on Sept. 7 by hosting the Kansas City Chiefs.
New England earned that honor with its record comeback to beat Atlanta in the Super Bowl. Its opening opponent in a Thursday night game won the AFC West last season.
The Falcons visit Chicago in their first game.
The rest of the opening weekend will feature what seems like a yearly occurrence, with Dallas hosting the New York Giants on Sunday night. They finished 1-2 in the NFC East in 2016.
On Monday night, New Orleans is at Minnesota, followed by the Chargers, in their first game representing Los Angeles since 1960, at Denver.
The Cowboys will visit the Broncos in week two.
Five games will be held abroad, beginning with Baltimore vs. Jacksonville in London on Sept. 24. The next week, Miami hosts New Orleans. In Week 7, the Rams host the Cardinals, followed the next week by Minnesota vs. Cleveland.
New England is the visitor against Oakland at Mexico City on Nov. 19.
Thanksgiving’s traditional games will have Minnesota at Detroit and the Chargers at Dallas. In prime time, the Redskins will be home for the Giants.
Christmas weekend will be busy. Two Saturday matches have Indianapolis at Baltimore in late afternoon, Minnesota at Green Bay at night on Dec. 23. Most of the rest of the schedule will be played on Dec. 24, with no night game. On Christmas Day, Pittsburgh will go to Houston in a lateafternoon matchup, followed by Oakland at Philadelphia.
Every team except Cleveland and Jacksonville will get prime-time exposure.
BILLS: Offensive lineman Cyrus Kouandjio was taken to the hospital for observation after police found him without any pants on in suburban Buffalo field.
Erie County Sheriff’s spokesman Scott Zylka said deputies were responding to a complaint of a suspicious person when they came upon Kouandjio around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Zylka said the player was cooperative in answering deputies’ questions, and added no charges have been filed.
ELI: An angry and emotional Eli Manning has denied providing fake game-used memorabilia to a collector, insisting he will be vindicated.
Manning addressed the accusations on Thursday after a plaintiff in a 2014 lawsuit recently filed a motion to compel testimony that included an email from Manning to a team equipment manager asking for two helmets that could pass as game-used items.
The two-time Super Bowl MVP refused to discuss the specifics of the civil case, which is scheduled to go to trial in September.
GIANTS: Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul says the injury that sidelined him late last season was more serious than a sports hernia. He said surgeons fixed two spots in his abdomen and two in his groin in December.