Did we miss the annouoncement of opening games???

[jmt57]

I don't believe anyone mentioned it yet but ESPN has the Schedule Release special listed as being on Tuesday, 4/13 at 4pm EST.

Well I guess that makes sense from a marketing perspective. Rather than go head-to-head with stories like baseball's opening day, college basketball finals, or the Tiger Woods/Masters gossip, the NFL waits till those are over and done with. Then the NFL makes its schedule announcement on what will probably be a slow day for sports stories & they can grab the sports headlines and attention of sports fans with what is in reality a non-story.

 

[Uncle Meat]

The reason they gave is that the schedule maker was "not far enough along in the scheduling process."

Something tells me, though, it has more to do with the recent announcement of trying to make as many week 16 and 17 games divisional games. I'm guessing here, but it wouldn't surprise me if the scheduling process had already begun before this edict came down from above and caused some confusion.

This exactly why, coming straight from the horse's mouth, Goodell. It's a sham when teams like the Jets are allowed to walk into the playoffs because a team already set lays down. Probably one of the worst things about the end of the year. The Bills killed the Colts in the season finale; what a joke.

Don't know why it would take longer to put together a schedule more geared towards not having "fake games" towards the end of the season, though.

 

[jmt57]

This exactly why, coming straight from the horse's mouth, Goodell. It's a sham when teams like the Jets are allowed to walk into the playoffs because a team already set lays down. Probably one of the worst things about the end of the year. The Bills killed the Colts in the season finale; what a joke.

Don't know why it would take longer to put together a schedule more geared towards not having "fake games" towards the end of the season, though.

I'm not opposed to the change; in fact I'm in favor of it because it increases the chances that a head-to-head meeting gives the winner the division title and sends the winner home, effectively making it an early playoff game.

However no schedule change, including this one, is going to guarantee one wildcard contender is playing against backups while another is not.