Previously, the NFL told PFT that the 2014 regular-season schedule was on target for a mid-April release.
Mid-April comes Tuesday, technically. And the schedule isn’t coming at all this week.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said earlier today on Twitter than the schedule won’t be released this week, with an homage (intended or otherwise) to Yogi Berra: “We will announce when we will announce it.”
That’s pretty much the way it works every year. There’s no set date; the league pulls the sheet off the schedule when it’s ready.
Typically, the schedule is released before the draft. With the draft moved back two weeks, the league has two more weeks to conclude the complex process of scheduling 256 regular-season games.
Like a kid who gets two extra weeks to turn in a term paper, the NFL has two extra weeks to finish the schedule. It’s likely be released next week (which would have been draft week) or the week after.
And when it’s released, it’ll be the biggest story in the sports world, even through we already know who will play whom and where the games will be played.