Rex Ryan's Green & White will play in 2009 on Monday Night Football.
Preseason Edition, that is.
The Jets and the NFL have just released the team's upcoming preseason schedule, and the highlight of the summer slate is Monday, Aug. 24: Jets at Baltimore, kickoff at 8 p.m. ET.
Thus ESPN will put the early spin on Ryan, in his second game as an NFL head coach, taking the Jets back to the city where he coached the previous 10 seasons, and the previous four as the Ravens' defensive coordinator.
This is the first nationally televised Monday night preseason game in franchise history. The last times the Jets played a preseason game on Monday night were in 1976 and '78, but neither was a national game. The last time the Jets played in a nationally televised summer game was against Minnesota on Friday, Aug.17, 2007, on Fox. And it will be the Jets' first preseason game against the Ravens since 2002 at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium.
Ryan and his Jets will get their preseason debut the week before at home, when they host the St. Louis Rams at the Meadowlands on Friday night, Aug. 14, with kickoff at 7 p.m.
It will be the teams' first preseason meeting ever, but the second in the Meadowlands in less than 10 months, or since the Jets downed St. Louis last regular season, 47-3. And it will mark former Giants DC Steve Spagnuolo's head-coaching debut as the new leader of the Rams.
The first two games were scheduled by the NFL. The final two are the Jets' familiar summer-ending games against the Giants and Eagles.
The annual Jets-Giants game will be the 40th consecutive year the rivals and stadium mates have met in the preseason — and it will be the last time the two play in the current stadium before meeting again in the summer of 2010 at New Meadowlands Stadium. This year's game will probably be played Saturday night, Aug. 29, although the date hasn't been confirmed.
Finally, the Jets will play the Eagles in the preseason finale for the ninth consecutive year. This game is set for Thursday night, Sept. 3, with the opening kickoff set for 7 p.m.
Rex's Jets could be in primetime in the regular season as well, but we don't know that yet. The NFL's full regular-season schedule will be announced in mid-April.
Here is the Jets' preseason schedule, with some details still to be worked out:
| Date | Opponent | Place | Kickoff | TV |
| Aug. 14 | vs. St. Louis Rams | Meadowlands | 7 p.m. | WCBS (NY) |
| Aug. 24 | at Baltimore Ravens | M&T Bank Stadium | 8 p.m. | ESPN |
| Aug. 29-30 | at New York Giants | Meadowlands | WNBC (NY) | |
| Sept. 3 | vs. Philadelphia Eagles | Meadowlands | 7 p.m. | WCBS (NY) |
