The National Football League will spread their 16 game opening week schedule over four days beginning with the traditional Super Bowl Champions hosting the Thursday night contest. In addition to a baker's dozen games on Sunday, the Chicago Bears will host the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night and the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers will meet in the first of seven International Games on Friday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The Friday night game will serve as a home game for the Chargers, even though it is played on a neutral field.
Good idea?
I think not.
Giving up a home game played against your primary division rival, a team that has won your division nine consecutive years, seems like a raw deal for the Chargers from the schedule makers. Why not have this serve as a home game for the Chiefs and give the Chargers the advantage of playing their second meeting of the season against Patrick Mahomes and company in Los Angeles?
This week, I heard a caller on the NFL radio network complain that it appears to him that the schedule makers are unfair to his hometown team, the Cleveland Browns. Really, I hadn’t noticed. But he went on a litany of complaints while saying, “This season, the Browns have to open against the Cincinnati Bengals, play at the Baltimore Ravens in the second week, then have to play the Green Bay Packers before going to Detroit before meeting the Minnesota Vikings in Ireland.”