Few targets move like the one that eventually will trigger the release of the NFL’s regular-season schedule. Originally planned for next Thursday, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that the finalists are now Tuesday and Wednesday.
The schedule is and has been ready to go. As another source tells PFT, the league circulates the finished product to some of the more influential owners for “beta testing” before making it official. It’s unclear whether any of the owners have the juice to force changes to the schedule; some adjustments would require more effort than shuffling a couple of games around. It could be that Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose job partially entails keeping a constituency of 32 as happy as possible, wants some of the key members of the group that determines his terms of employment to feel as if they are involved.
And they should be. It’s ultimately their sport. Besides, a fresh look at the 256-game slate from a self-made billionaire or two (and even from some of the guys who had the billions handed to them at birth) can’t hurt.
Regarding the specific day for releasing the schedule, NFL Network typically has a strong voice in the process. Currently, the word is that NFLN prefers Wednesday.
Either way, the wait for applying the “when” to the “who” and the “where” will end soon.
And it’s not as trivial an exercise as some would suggest. Apart from letting fans make travel plans games the intend to attend or permitting fans to begin anticipating key prime-time and other high-profile games, individual teams will know whether they’ll be facing an array of cream puffs to start the season, a murderers’ row, or something in between. For some franchises, the won-loss record at the end of September could be a major factor in whether the team does or doesn’t get to the postseason.