I don’t have much to put in the thread yet because the schedule release isn’t till tomorrow at 7pm, but I figured I’d start a thread in case anyone wanted to get discussion rolling.
The NFL delayed making their schedule for a week or two - it was originally going to come out sometime around the 10th-12th. Why they can’t get their shit together, I don’t know - they could’ve increased their publicity and visibility by having the schedule release and then the draft, now they’re going to all get crunched up.
I heard they’re going to try something different this year and have a few primetime games that don’t involve NFC East teams, but I have my doubts.
The Browns have no west coast games this year (nothing west of New Orleans) which kind of sucks. Getting up at 10am on the west coast for football games is just plain unnatural - especially when your normal bedtime is about 7am. I doubt they’ll get any primetime games either.
I’ve lived my whole life getting up for 10am football games. It would be very strange to me to have to wait 'til 1:00 every Sunday for football games to finally start. In fact, West Coast teams regularly have a hard time with early starts on East Coast road games.
Anyway, the 49ers have a game in London this year, instead of a home game. It’s against the Broncos.
I’ve heard the NFL wants to have more division rivalry type games in the last two-three weeks of the season, in an effort to avoid the virtual forfeits where locked in playoff teams pull their starters in the first quarter.
The NFL is delaying their schedule release until after they determine how many games Rothlisberger is going to miss so that Rooney’s yes man Roger Goodell can line up a string of creampuff games for the Steelers…first four games against the Lions, Chiefs, Panthers and Browns…
Indeed; it’s the moral equivalent of Fox seeming to carry a Yankees or Red Sox game (or, even worse, a Yankees vs. Red Sox game) every single bloody week.
This is why we have a Senate. If we didn’t, practically nothing outside of 10 miles from I-95 would matter. I only wish there could be an alternative to that broadcasting hegemony, but the only alternative seems to be missing a bunch of west coast games because they’re only on in the middle of the night. Then again, market research has proven that a significant number of people seem to have the employment flexibility to watch games that start after 9 PM on a workday. I just wonder if these are the same people who can afford to buy anything they’re advertising other than beer. The Viagra-needers are already asleep, ad-wizards.
The concurrence of the release of the schedule and Goodell’s decision on Rothlisberger is suspicious.
Of course, what’s good for the Steelers is good for the NFL and therefore for the free world, right?
The Bears will be traveling to Toronto to take on the hapless Bills in the Rogers [del]Center[/del] Centre on Novermber 7th. It’ll be interesting I suppose, maybe I’ll squeeze a couple bucks together and make the journey just for the novelty of it.
There’s been ongoing rumors that the Bears will face the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day. I’ll be eager to see if that plays out later tonight.
The 11-4 Packers will be facing the 6-9 Bears in the last game of the season. Still, it might be nice to have home field advantage throughout the playoffs…
I’m really liking the 49ers schedule. Two primetime games at home against the Saints and Eagles, two primetime games at the Cardinals and Chargers, and the season finale at home against the Cardinals. AND the London game against the Broncos, with the bye following. AND only five early (10am local) games, with two of those possible flex-schedule games.
Quite a large number of division matchups on primetime, and not just NFC East. This should be a fun season.
Edit: Oh, and the quadrennial Battle of the Bay game is at home this time around, for local bragging rights for the next four years.
The Bears schedule isn’t too interesting. No Thanksgiving day game in Dallas unfortunately, was thinking about arranging a vacation for that one. We’ve got an early Primetime game against Green Bay in Week 3, thankfully this ones at home this time. Hopefully the kinks are worked out of the Martz offense by then. We get the tough AFC East matchups against the Pats and Jets in Soldier Field and get the Phins and Bills on the road which is a good break. A soft start versus the Lions at should get things going on the right foot. The Bears don’t fly West of Dallas all season.
