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Denver Native (Carol)
04-15-2009, 09:25 AM
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d5d80fc71a5&template=without-video-with-comments&confirm=true

The folks who put together the NFL schedule have a host of issues to deal with every year, from travel logistics to stadium conflicts to figuring in bye weeks. Here are a few nuggets regarding the 2009 schedule, which was released Tuesday:

» All 12 playoff teams from 2008 will appear on NBC's Sunday night schedule.

» Of the five teams that will make three national network-television appearances, two of them -- the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys -- didn't make the playoffs last season. The other three teams are the Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles.

» No teams that had an early season bye week in 2008 have an early season bye in 2009.

» Two teams have three-game road trips: the Giants in Weeks 2 through 4 (at Dallas, at Tampa Bay, at Kansas City) and the Seattle Seahawks in Weeks 10 through 12 (at Arizona, at Minnesota, at St. Louis).

» The Buffalo Bills will host the New York Jets in Toronto on Thursday, Dec. 3, on NFL Network. The game is four days after the Grey Cup, the championship game of the Canadian Football League.

» All teams with multiple coast-to-coast trips have them well-spaced (as opposed to last year, when, for example, the New England Patriots stayed in California between two West Coast games and the Cardinals stayed in New Jersey between two East Coast games).

» The schedule-makers must always consider the three NFL teams that share stadiums with baseball teams. Most of the potential conflicts are avoidable, but some possibilities still require a contingency plan. Two examples:

The Vikings host the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football in Week 4. However, if the Minnesota Twins happen to host a "play-in" game on the Monday after the end of the Major League Baseball regular season, the Vikings' game against the Packers would move to Green Bay.

If the Oakland Athletics are in the American League Championship Series and have to play a seventh game at McAfee Coliseum, the Week 7 game between the Jets and Raiders in Oakland would move to Monday night.

Still, some baseball-related conflicts were resolved. The Vikings open with two consecutive road games (at Cleveland, at Detroit) because of a scheduling conflict with the Twins. However, the Vikings did receive the Monday night game they requested.

» The Cardinals open the season at home for just the third time in the past 22 years. In most of those years, the team requested to start the season on the road.

» Several teams had to work around other stadium obligations. For example, the Carolina Panthers' home schedule had to take a NASCAR race and the Meineke Car Care Bowl into account.

» Three teams -- the Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Washington Redskins -- had to work around already-scheduled U2 concerts.

The Giants had to schedule around a Bruce Springsteen concert.

» After having to play at Lambeau Field for five straight Decembers, the Detroit Lions catch a break in 2009 by traveling to Green Bay in Week 6 instead.

Joel
04-16-2009, 02:49 AM
I'm curious how they decide who hosts the non-divisional games. We can look at last seasons regular season standings to see which teams play which other teams, but if there's a way to know ahead of time whether it's home or away I haven't seen it. For example, all the AFC West teams play all the AFC North teams this year, but there's a big difference between us playing at Pitt and Baltimore while visiting Cleveland and Cincinatti versus, say, the Bolts doing the opposite. Likewise, there's a difference between the Steelers coming to Mile High in December and visiting San Diego while the Ravens only travel to Chokeland and KC. One would expect at least a half hearted attempt to balance such issues (forecasting next season on the basis of last season is an inexact science anyway) but if there's a metric in place I'm unaware of it.

OrangeHoof
04-16-2009, 03:52 AM
» The Cardinals open the season at home for just the third time in the past 22 years. In most of those years, the team requested to start the season on the road.

They often spent the first two weeks on the road because it is still friggin' hot in the desert in mid-September and, up until recently, the Cardinals' home stadium was outdoors. Now that they have an indoor facility, I expect their schedule to be more like everyone else's.