Rams head to Monday three times

ST. LOUIS -- Three Monday Night Football games and a Sunday night game highlight the St. Louis Rams' schedule, released Thursday.

The NFL begins an eight-division format this season -- four four-team divisions in each conference -- as the Houston Texans become the league's 32nd team. The Rams play two games each against their NFC West foes -- San Francisco, Arizona and Seattle.

The Rams play at Tampa on Monday, Sept. 23. They host two Monday Night games -- Nov. 18 against the Chicago Bears and the season finale, Dec. 30, against the 49ers.

St. Louis plays a Sunday night home game against Arizona on Dec. 15.

"It's a very tough schedule and challenging for our coaches," team president John Shaw said, noting the four prime-time games as well as a stretch of four out of five games on the road in November and December. "Yet on the other hand it indicates how popular the Rams are with the number of national games."

The regular season opener is Sept. 8 at Denver. Other highlights include a rematch of the NFC championship game at Philadelphia on Dec. 1 and a cross-state game against former Rams coach Dick Vermeil and the Kansas City Chiefs on Dec. 8 in Kansas City.

SAINTS: Veteran linebacker Bryan Cox, an unrestricted free agent after spending 2001 as a defensive captain in New England, agreed to a one-year contract with New Orleans .

The deal is worth $750,000 but, because of a new rule that provides a cap break to teams who sign long-time veteran to minimum salary contracts, Cox will count just $450,000 against the New Orleans spending limit in 2002.

SEAHAWKS: Seattle has retained unrestricted free agent Bobby Engram, the most experienced member of their young wide receiver corps, by signing him to a one-year contract.

Engram, 29, actually agreed to the contract a few weeks ago, but the deal had to be reworked because the league did not approve some of its conditions. The deal will include a signing bonus of $25,000 and base salary of $525,000.

NFL SCHEDULE: A new-look NFL will start its season with a Thursday night game for the first time and end its opening weekend with a Monday night appearance by the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots.

The 256-game schedule includes a Sept. 5 game with the San Francisco 49ers playing at the New York Giants. The Thursday night opener will be shown on ESPN.

BROWN FASTING: Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown has been on a fast since being jailed earlier this month for vandalizing his wife's car.

"From what he told us, it's not a protest but a spiritual cleaning kind of thing," county Sheriff's Department spokesman Eric Nishimoto said Thursday. "He said it wasn't in protest of anything.

"It is something he has done in the past outside of our custody. He's done it in tandem with his personal physician. "

-- From wire reports