Last week, we caught wind of the possibility that the 2013 regular-season schedule won’t be released on Tuesday, April 16.
The possibility has now become a certainty.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tells PFT that the schedule won’t be released on April 16. He added the date for the release has not been determined.
“It will not be tomorrow but could be in the next week or two,” Aiello said via email. “We’re working to finalize it.”
Typically, the schedule is released before the draft. The information has some (but not much) relevance to the decisions made by teams as to the needs that will be addressed, since the schedule lets every franchise know precisely when it will be facing each opponent.
Online listings for NFL Network previously included a schedule-release show at 8:00 p.m. ET on April 16. While not immediately removed after the information was noticed and publicized, at some point in the past few weeks the plans changed.
Complicating this year’s process of configuring 256 regular-season games, which now includes three prime-time games per week and 17 total Thursday games, was roughly three weeks of uncertainty arising from the question of whether the Ravens will be hosting the midweek season opener. Once the decision was made that the Ravens will play in Week One on the road, NFL senior V.P. of broadcasting and media operations Howard Katz’s annual task became even more daunting.
More accurately, the chore became even more Herculean. With near-infinite possibilities and networks politicking for preferential treatment and a wide range of conflicts and other factors to consider, it’s far from the easiest batch of sausage to make.