Merry Christmas, from the NFL!

The NFL has scheduled a game on Christmas Eve, a doubleheader for Christmas Day, and a Thursday night season kickoff between the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, the team they beat in the AFC title game.

The league released its 2004 schedule yesterday, and because Christmas falls on a Saturday, NFL officials slotted a game on Dec. 24 between the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings at 3 p.m. (ET) at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. The game, the first for the NFL on a Friday night since 1999, will be carried by Fox.

On Christmas Day, Oakland will travel to Kansas City for a 5 p.m. game on CBS and Denver will be at Tennessee for an 8:30 p.m. game on ESPN.

"These are not firsts, we've played a bunch of games on Christmas and the day before Christmas in recent years," league spokesman Greg Aiello said. "It's basically just a function of the calendar and our television commitments."

In 2000, the league played 11 games on Dec. 24, a Sunday, and Dallas played Tennessee in a "Monday Night Football" game the next day, the last time a game was played on Christmas. This year's Christmas Day games will mark the ninth and 10th games in league history played on Dec. 25, including a playoff doubleheader in 1971 matching Dallas and Minnesota and Miami and Kansas City.

Kansas City, Dallas and Green Bay each will make a league-high five appearances on national television. The Patriots, winners of two of the last three Super Bowls, are one of nine teams that will have four national appearances, along with Washington and Baltimore.

The resurgence of the 8-8 Cincinnati Bengals to playoff contention under Coach Marvin Lewis, a former Ravens and Redskins defensive coordinator, will result in the franchise's first Monday night appearance since 1992. They will play the Denver Broncos on Oct. 25 at Paul Brown Stadium, and also have a Sunday night home game Sept. 19 on ESPN.

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The defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers will have two national appearances, including a home game against the Packers in the first Monday night game, on Sept. 13. They will also have a rematch of their NFC title game victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, again at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field, at 8:30 p.m. Oct. 17.

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Several new head coaches will have games against teams they worked for last year as assistants. Atlanta's Jim Mora, defensive coordinator for San Francisco the last five years, will take his team west to face the 49ers in the season opener.

Rookie Buffalo coach Mike Mularkey spent the last seven seasons as an assistant in Pittsburgh. The Bills will end the regular season at home against the Steelers on Jan. 2. Buffalo also makes its first appearance in Oakland in 27 years when the teams meet on Sept. 19.

Jon Gruden, coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the last two years, will make his first return to Oakland since leaving the Raiders following the 2001 season in a Sunday night game on Sept. 26. Defensive tackle Warren Sapp, who left the Bucs to join the Raiders via free agency in the offseason, no doubt has that game circled on his calendar. So will Tampa Bay running back Charlie Garner, who went from the Raiders to the Bucs in February.

The regular season will end with a Sunday night game between the Cowboys and Giants on Jan. 2. For the second straight season there will be a two-week gap between the conference championship games Jan. 23 and Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville on Feb. 6, the latest the season has ever ended.