Thursday, August 27th:

Miami Dolphins at Tampa Bay Bucs (FOX, 8pm)- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver

Friday, August 28th:

New England Patriots at Washington Redskins (CBS, 8pm)- Jim Nantz, Phil Simms

Saturday, August 29th:

Indianapolis Colts at Detroit Lions (NFL Network, 1pm)- Local Announcers
New Orleans Saints at Oakland Raiders (NFL Network, 4pm)- Local Announcers
San Diego Chargers at Atlanta Falcons (CBS, 8pm)- Greg Gumbel, Dan Fouts

Sunday, August 30th:
Chicago Bears at Denver Broncos (NBC, 8pm)- Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth

Monday, August 31st:

Minnesota Vikings at Houston Texans (ESPN, 8pm)- Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski, Jon Gruden

We'll be doing some more live blogging tonight over at 12StepDrop at 8pm. Brady's back and Jon Gruden makes his debut on Monday (well Thursday) Night Football.

If you haven't been by 12StepDrop yet, checkout the Chatter section. It filters out all the useless tweets by the players and shows you just their thoughts on camp and their teams. Just what the internet needs, more fantasy data.

See you back here at 8 ...

Last year the NFL Network aired 53 preseason games throughout the Summer, but this year they're amping it up a bit. In fact, the league's channel will be airing every single game at some point during the month of August, and will include all 11 nationally televised games. Via NFL-N PR....

NFL Network is home to all the NFL preseason games for the first time with 65 games airing on the only network dedicated entirely to football. In addition for the first time, the entire NFL preseason schedule will be seen in high definition nationally including 12 live preseason games, the most in the network’s history.

Week 1 of the 2009 NFL preseason on NFL Network features five live games highlighted by the debuts of first-round quarterback draft picks MATTHEW STAFFORD and MARK SANCHEZ. The live coverage kicks off with a doubleheader on Friday, August 14 at 8:00 PM ET with the St. Louis Rams vs. New York Jets, followed by Denver Broncos vs. San Francisco 49ers. Saturday, August 15 features the first-ever live tripleheader with the Atlanta Falcons vs. Detroit Lions beginning at 4:00 PM ET, followed immediately by Chicago Bears vs. Buffalo Bills and Seattle Seahawks vs. San Diego Chargers.

There’s no better place for Fantasy Football fans to prepare their picks and depth charts for the 2009 regular season than with NFL Network and NFL.com’s all-encompassing coverage of the 2009 preseason. All 12 live preseason games will include halftime shows featuring NFL Network’s team of analysts from its Los Angeles studios and five-minute NFL Network Now updates between game broadcasts reporting the most up-to-date news and information. NFL Network’s schedule includes a total of 162 telecasts as it includes every game, live games and game replays of all the preseason action.

I'm so stoked that Comcast and the NFL Network worked out that deal to keep the channel on their programming. Get your calendars out folks, because here is the entire list of games, and times that they're being aired (*- indicated live telecast on NFL-N)! Many thanks to Ken at Fang's Bites for the release....

Monday, August 10

Buffalo Bills at Tennessee Titans (9am)

Thursday, August 13

New England Patriots at Philadelphia Eagles (11pm)

Friday, August 14

Dallas Cowboys at Oakland Raiders (2am)
Washington Redskins at Baltimore Ravens (3pm)
St. Louis Rams at New York Jets (7pm)*
Denver Broncos at San Francisco 49ers (10pm) *

Saturday, August 15

Minnesota Vikings at Indianapolis Colts (1am)
Cincinnati Bengals at New Orleans Saints (7am)
Arizona Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers (1pm)
Atlanta Falcons at Detroit Lions (4pm)*
Chicago Bears at Buffalo Bills (7pm)*
Seattle Seahawks at San Diego Chargers (10pm)*

Sunday, August 16

Cleveland Browns at Green Bay Packers (1am)
Houston Texans at Kansas City (10am)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Tennessee Titans (1pm)

Monday, August 17

Jacksonville Jaguars at Miami Dolphins (11pm)

Wednesday, August 19

Carolina Panthers at New York Giants (1pm)

Thursday, August 20

Cincinnati Bengals at New England Patriots (11pm)

Friday, August 21

Philadelphia Eagles at Indianapolis Colts (1pm)
Kansas City Chiefs at Minnesota Vikings (1pm)

Saturday, August 22

Atlanta Falcons at St. Louis Rams (2am)
Tennessee Titans at Dallas Cowboys (1pm)
Pittsburgh Steelers at Washington Redskins (7:30pm)*
Denver Broncos at Seattle Seahawks (10:30pm)*

Sunday, August 23

San Diego Chargers at Arizona Cardinals (1:30am)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Jacksonville Jaguars (7am)
Detroit Lions at Cleveland Browns (10am)
Carolina Panthers at Miami Dolphins (1pm)
Buffalo Bills at Green Bay Packers (4pm)
New York Giants at Chicago Bears (7pm)
Oakland Raiders at San Francisco 49ers (10pm)

Monday, August 24

New Orleans Saints at Houston Texans (1am)

Wednesday, August 26

New York Jets at Baltimore Ravens (1pm)

Thursday, August 27

Jacksonville Jaguars at Philadelphia Eagles (11pm)

Friday, August 28

St. Louis Rams at Cincinnati Bengals (2am)
Miami Dolphins at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1pm)

Saturday, August 29

Green Bay Packers at Arizona Cardinals (1am)
New England Patriots at Washington Redskins (7am)
Indianapolis Colts at Detroit Lions (1pm)*
New Orleans at Oakland Raiders (4pm)*
Seattle Seahawks at Kansas City Chiefs (11pm)

Sunday, August 30

Baltimore Ravens at Carolina Panthers (7am)
New York Jets at New York Giants (10am)
Buffalo Bills at Pittsburgh Steelers (1pm)
San Francisco 49s at Dallas Cowboys (4pm)

Monday, August 31

Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns (12am)
San Diego Chargers at Atlanta Falcons (7am)
Chicago Bears at Denver Broncos (4pm)

Tuesday, September 1

Minnesota Vikings at Houston Texans (10am)

Thursday, September 3

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Jets (7pm)*
Oakland Raiders at Seattle Seahawks (10pm)*

Friday, September 4

Kansas City Chiefs at St. Louis Rams (7am)
Baltimore Ravens at Atlanta Falcons (10am)
Miami Dolphins at New Orleans Saints (1pm)
New York Giants at New England Patriots (4pm)
Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings (8pm)
Green Bay Packers at Tennessee Titans (11:30pm)

Saturday, September 5

Arizona Cardinals at Denver Broncos (1am)
Houston Texans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10am)
Cleveland Browns at Chicago Bears (4pm)
Washington Redskins at Jacksonville Jaguars (8:30pm)
Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals (11:30pm)

Sunday, September 6

Detroit Lions at Buffalo Bills (7am)
Pittsburgh Steelers at Carolina Panthers (4pm)
San Francisco 49ers at San Diego Chargers (2:30am)

(*- Live NFL-N Telecasts)

The National Football League released it's preseason schedule today, and while you can view the whole thing at NFL.com, I figured I'd share the National TV portion of the schedule with you. There are some great games on the slate, but it appears ESPN lucked out with the most intriguing.....a rematch of Super Bowl XLIII. Here's the rest of the schedule....

Hall of Fame Game

Sunday, Aug. 9- Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans, at Canton, Ohio (NBC, 8 p.m. ET)

Week 1

Thursday, Aug. 13- Arizona Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)
Monday, Aug. 17- Carolina Panthers at New York Giants (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)

Week 2

Thursday, Aug. 20- Philadelphia Eagles at Indianapolis Colts (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)
Friday, Aug. 21- Tennessee Titans at Dallas Cowboys (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)
Monday, Aug. 24- New York Jets at Baltimore Ravens (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)

Week 3

Thursday, Aug. 27- Miami Dolphins at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (FOX, 8 p.m. ET)
Friday, Aug. 28- New England Patriots at Washington Redskins (CBS, 8 p.m. ET)
Saturday, Aug. 29- San Diego Chargers at Atlanta Falcons (CBS, 8 p.m. ET)
Sunday, Aug. 30- Chicago Bears at Denver Broncos (NBC, 8 p.m. ET)
Monday, Aug. 31- Minnesota Vikings at Houston Texans (ESPN, 8 p.m. ET)

Great news Eagles fans! Gus hasn't left Philly for Detroit as previously reported. He's actually doing preseason games for both teams! Johnson will be with Desmond Howard when covering Lions games and will continue to do Eagles games with the (dynamic!) Charlie Casserly....

Via The Eagles (PDF): "Veteran play-by-play man Gus Johnson will call the action for the Eagles for the third-straight preseason. Known most notably for his coverage of the NFL and college basketball for CBS Sports, Johnson has also called play-by-play for college football, track and field, boxing, and the 1998 Winter Olympics.

A 16-year veteran NFL general manager and a 24-year NFL executive, Charley Casserly worked for the Washington Redskins (1977-1999) and Houston Texans (2000-06). He has also done work with many television and radio stations, including the NFL Network and most recently, CBS. Casserly currently serves as the "General Manager" for the CBS Television Network's NFL pregame show, The NFL Today."

Via The Detroit News: The Lions did not sell out Thursday's game, but it will be shown on tape delay (9 p.m.) on WWJ-TV (Ch. 62). Gus Johnson and Desmond Howard will do the broadcast.

Well how about that? There's only one day, August 28th, when both teams are playing on the same date, so prepare yourselves in Motown and Philly for a preseason of Gus! I'm hoping for some video and audio from you people at some point as well. Good times.

(Thanks to the commenters who passed on both articles)

Detroit News is breaking the news that the Detroit Lions might be looking towards one Gus Johnson to call their preseason games this August. It's not rare for teams to bring on familiar broadcasters to ramp up the season but Channel 62 in Detroit is looking to replace the team from last year....

The Lions will at least sound different in the exhibition season, with a new broadcast crew scheduled to do play-by-play and analysis on local telecasts of the team's four exhibition games on WWJ-TV (Channel 62).

Gus Johnson, a Detroit native who has done NFL games for the CBS network since 1998, is the top candidate for the play-by-play man. An announcement on the full crew is expected soon by Channel 62.

Trey Fabacher, vice-president and general manager of Channel 62, would not confirm the hiring of Johnson, but Lions sources confirmed Johnson has been the No. 1 choice for play-by-play. The Lions and Channel 62 recently signed a three-year contract for the CBS-owned station to televise the exhibition games. Channel 62 is not retaining the previous broadcast team, which had Frank Beckmann doing play-by-play and former Lions quarterback Erik Kramer doing color.

I would never disapprove of Gus on any broadcast (although the MMA heads may disagree), but for a team that needs a spark, this maybe the guy to push them over the edge. Wait this is the push for the Playoffs right? Oh it's the Preseason??? Okay, well let's get drunk, watch some Kitna, and then listen to Gus get excited about some fourth stringers! Ain't nothing wrong with that.

Ch. 62's Lions telecasts change (Detroit News)