GREEN BAY, Wis. — Only four months and counting until the Packers return to the field for their first preseason game.
The NFL released on Wednesday the preseason schedule for all 32 teams, and Green Bay's will begin at 7 p.m. CT Aug. 9 when the Packers travel to San Diego for a nationally televised game against the Chargers. This will be the second NFL game of the preseason, coming four days after the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints meet in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
It will mark the fourth preseason meeting between the Packers and Chargers, the most recent happening in 2006.
The two preseason games at Lambeau Field will be against the Cleveland Browns (Week 2) and Kansas City Chiefs (Week 4). The dates and times of those games have not yet been determined. Neither will be available nationwide, but both will be broadcast throughout the state of Wisconsin, as well as in northeastern Minnesota and the Quad Cities in Iowa.
It will be the fourth straight year the Packers and Browns have met in the preseason. In 2011, Cleveland hosted the matchup. This game will be the 63rd-annual Upper Midwest Shrine Game, a tradition that started in 1950 and has raised more than $3.4 million for the Midwest Shrine's burn centers and hospitals for crippled children. Green Bay has won 10 of the last 13 games in the Shrine series. In the Packers' first preseason game last season, the Browns handed Green Bay its only preseason loss.
In Week 3, the Packers will head to Cincinnati to face the Bengals. Cincinnati is the only team on Green Bay's preseason schedule that made the playoffs last season.
The Week 4 game against the Chiefs will mark the third consecutive season in which the two teams will meet in their last preseason game. Last year, the Packers won, 20-19. This will be the 52nd-annual Bishop's Charities Game, a tradition that was started by Vince Lombardi in 1961 and has raised more than $3.5 million.
Green Bay, which suffered its only 2011 regular-season loss against the Chiefs, will not face any of its preseason opponents in the regular season.
It will be a few more weeks until the regular-season schedule is announced. However, the Packers know that their opponents at home will be the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints, Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans. On the road, Green Bay will face the Bears, Lions, Vikings, St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, New York Giants, Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts.
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