The Green Bay Packers will have a national audience three times this year. The NFL released the season schedules Thursday afternoon, which gives the Packers three primetime matchups.

The season debut of Coach Mike McCarthy is a home game against the Chicago Bears on September 10. One hopeful coincidence for Packers fans is that Vince Lombardi was the last Packers coach to make their season coaching debut against the Bears on Green Bay soil.

The schedule will also have fans thinking about the Super Bowl when the Packers host the New England Patriots, the team Green Bay defeated ten years ago in Super Bowl XXXI for the national championship.

But unlike past years, this schedule is not set in stone. This marks the first NFL season with flexible scheduling toward the end of the season. The NFL can change the time of the games if teams are doing particularly well and may attract a larger TV audience -- or if teams are doing poorly and may lose audience.

Flex-schedule times are indicated with an asterisk (*)

Date	Time (Central)	Opponent (home games are in ALL CAPS)
Preseason
August 10-14	TBA	at San Diego Chargers
August 17-21	TBA	ATLANTA FALCONS (Gold Pkg.)
August 28	7 p.m.	at Cincinnati Bengals
Aug. 31-Sept. 1	TBA	TENNESSEE TITANS
Regular Season
September 10	3:15 p.m.	CHICAGO BEARS
September 17	Noon	NEW ORLEANS SAINTS (Gold Pkg.)
September 24	Noon	at Detroit Lions
October 2	7:30 p.m.	at Philadelphia Eagles
October 8	Noon	ST. LOUIS RAMS
October 15	Bye Week
October 22	Noon	at Miami Dolphins
October 29	Noon	ARIZONA CARDINALS
November 5	Noon	at Buffalo Bills
November 12	Noon*	at Minnesota Vikings
November 19	Noon*	NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (Gold Pkg.)
November 27	7:30 p.m.	at Seattle Seahawks
December 3	Noon*	NEW YORK JETS
December 10	3:05 p.m.*	at San Francisco 49ers
December 17	Noon*	DETROIT LIONS
December 21	7 p.m.	MINNESOTA VIKINGS
December 31	Noon*	at Chicago Bears
Postseason