Is there any real downside to [May] 19, 20 or 21? No<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\nThe NFL has yet to announce a specific date for the announcement of the schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s coming out in June, but that second week in May has been our target the last few years, but I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s impossible to think about that third week in May,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n
One factor could be the five-game package that will be carved out and sold separately. YouTube reportedly is the favorite. Netflix and Fox are also in consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese five games that are out there as a package that are being negotiated right now, love to know when, where those games are going to be played so we can schedule them accordingly,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n
North\u2019s interview happened before the draft. He made it clear that developments during the draft could influence the final schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe something happens in the draft that surprises us, somebody gets traded — a quarterback, a big name — something different at the top of the draft and we need an extra couple of days to adjust and react to it,\u201d North said.<\/p>\n
Another wildcard is Aaron Rodgers. If he decides to return to the Steelers for another season, Pittsburgh becomes a more attractive candidate for prime-time games. If Rodgers doesn\u2019t return, the Steelers have less sizzle.<\/p>\n
Ultimately it all comes down to when the Commissioner decides the schedule is ready. North made that point very clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t get finalized until the Commissioner of the National Football League says it\u2019s finalized,\u201d North said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m being coy about the date. I don\u2019t know the date. None of us know the date yet because we don\u2019t know when we\u2019re going to walk into the boss\u2019s office and present him one. And he\u2019s going to say, \u2018That\u2019s perfect. Ready to go. Send it out to the world.\u2019 . . .<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we walk in there on May 11th or 12th and he\u2019s not happy with where we are, he\u2019ll send us back downstairs and we\u2019ll lock ourselves back in the room and we\u2019ll keep grinding until we find something he likes,\u201d North said. \u201cAnd if it slides to the 18th, 19th or 20th, the world will keep spinning. I\u2019m sure at some point he\u2019s going to say, \u2018All right you morons, I\u2019m not giving you any more time. We got to go.\u2019 I hope it doesn\u2019t get to that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
The schedule has plenty of moving parts. To date, only two games have been set: 49ers at Rams in Australia on Thursday, September 10, and Ravens at Cowboys in Brazil on Sunday, September 27.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to imagine the schedule coming out any later than the third week in May. The fourth week in May ends with Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start of summer.<\/p>\n
Whenever the schedule is released, the fans want to know so that they can make plans as to the games they\u2019ll attend. And the networks want to be able to fully market their individual schedules to advertisers, especially with the traditional network upfront presentations happening during the week of May 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If recent history means anything, the NFL\u2019s full, 272-game regular-season schedule will be released during the week of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-622181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}