Teams that play in the Pacific time zone are tired of early kickoffs on the East Coast (and even earlier kickoffs in London), and they want the NFL to limit them.
Toward that end, the 49ers, Chargers and Cardinals have proposed a rule to be discussed at next week’s league meeting that would limit the number of early games that teams in the Pacific Time Zone can play.
According to Albert Breer of SI.com, the rule would say that no team will be scheduled to play more than three away games with a scheduled kickoff time prior to 1 p.m. in the time zone of their home stadium, except with that team’s consent.
For example, the 49ers have road games in Green Bay, Minnesota, Kansas City and Tampa Bay next season. The rule they’re proposing would mean that at least one of those games would have to be a 4 p.m. Eastern kickoff.
The teams out West might have trouble convincing the rest of the league to accept that rule, as the NFL likes to have flexibility for TV scheduling purposes. But it’s not surprising that they want the league to consider limiting their early wakeup calls.