Brandon’s World: NFL Needs to Delay Start of Season
On the day this article gets published (July 17, 2020), the National Football League (NFL) will be set to kick off training camp for the 2020 season in 11 days. With the ongoing spike in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, training camp should not take place at this time, and the NFL should completely redo the 2020 schedule, a la like how Major League Baseball (MLB) trimmed their season from 162 to 60 games and completely redid their schedule despite MLB owners and the MLB Players Association having a public negotiation (and epic fail) over the last three months.
For the 2020 MLB season, teams will face their division opponents 10 times each (40 games), and they will play 20 games against teams from the division of the opposite league (AL East vs NL East, AL Central vs NL Central and AL West vs NL West).
The NFL needs to do something similar, but the key difference between the NFL and MLB is the NFL needs to completely overhaul their divisions.
It makes no sense that the Dallas Cowboys are in the NFC East when Dallas is more towards the south. Same goes for the Miami Dolphins in the AFC East, and the same could be said for a lot of NFL teams.
In my opinion, instead of having AFC vs NFC for the 2020 season, the NFL should put all teams into eight divisions by region, splitting them up into two categories. I have laid out an example below on how I would set up the eight divisions.
Division 1 (East 1):
Eagles
Steelers
Ravens
Washington Football Team (Name to be announced later)
Division 2 (East 2):
Patriots
Jets
Bills
Giants
Division 3 (North 1):
Browns
Bengals
Lions
Colts
Division 4 (North 2):
Chiefs
Vikings
Packers
Bears
Division 5 (South 1):
Jaguars
Dolphins
Bucs
Panthers
Division 6 (South 2):
Texans
Cowboys
Saints
Falcons
Division 7 (West 1):
Niners
Rams
Chargers
Seahawks
Division 8 (West 2):
Broncos
Raiders
Titans
Cardinals
The hardest team to decide on was Tennessee. They should be located in the south, but the eight teams between the two divisions must be in the south because of geographical location and travel distance, so the west was the only spot for Tennessee.
Below, I have outlined a detailed calendar the NFL should consider regarding the 2020 schedule, training camp, preseason and the regular-season.
NFL calendar:
- Tuesday September 1, 2020: Everybody reports to training camp for a seven-day mandatory quarantine in the city where the team plays. Players would be allowed to go out and visit city in designated areas but will be forced to sleep in team hotel and not with their family. Penalties will be enforced by team officials as appropriate.
- Tuesday September 8, 2020 (day after Labor Day): Training camp begins (six week training camp, including two preseason games. Amount of contact allowed during non-games will be determined by each team, including tackling).
- Thursday Oct. 8, 2020: Preseason begins.
- Saturday Oct. 17, 2020: Preseason ends.
- Sunday Oct. 18, 2020: Rosters must be trimmed down to 53 by 4 p.m. EST.
- Thursday Oct. 22, 2020: OPENING GAME OF THE 2020 NFL SEASON (Chiefs vs ______)!
- Sunday Oct. 25, 2020: First Sunday of 11 week regular-season (10 games and a bye).
- Tuesday Nov. 24, 2020: Trade Deadline at 4 p.m. EST.
- Sunday Jan. 3, 2021: Last Sunday of regular-season.
- Saturday Jan. 9- Sunday Jan. 10, 2021: Wild Card playoffs.
- Saturday Jan. 16- Sunday Jan. 17, 2021: Divisional playoffs.
- Sunday Jan. 24, 2021: Conference Championship games.
- Sunday Feb. 7, 2021: Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Florida with (hopefully) close to 100% fans
The most noticeable piece of the NFL schedule missing from this plan is the 2021 Pro Bowl, currently scheduled for Jan. 31. With the current situation going on in the world, and the pure fact nobody watches the Pro Bowl, there’s no need for it to occur. Also, this calendar accounts for the NFL announcing only two preseason games will take place this season.
Preseason:
- Two games against other region. For example, West 1 vs West 2. Each team gets one home and one away game.
Regular Season:
- 10 games (5 home and 5 away with a bye week somewhere between Weeks 5–8.
- Play against division opponents twice (each team gets one home game), which equals six games.
- Play against other region teams once (East 1 vs East 2 for example), which equals four games. Each team gets 2 home games (a la Browns host Bears and Vikings and travel to Kansas City and Green Bay).
- 14 team playoff (instead of AFC vs NFC, it’s division 1’s vs division 2’s).
Preseason Schedule:
Week 1: Thursday Oct. 8 — Saturday Oct. 10, 2020
Week 2: Thursday Oct. 15, 2020
*ROSTERS MUST BE TRIMMED DOWN TO 53 BY SUNDAY OCT. 18 AT 4 P.M. EST*
Regular-season Schedule:
Week 1: Thursday Oct. 22 — Monday Oct. 26, 2020.
Week 2: Thursday Oct. 29 — Monday Nov. 2, 2020.
Week 3: Thursday Nov. 5 — Monday Nov. 9, 2020.
Week 4: Thursday Nov. 12 — Monday Nov. 16, 2020
Week 5: Thursday Nov. 19 — Monday Nov. 23, 2020
*TRADE DEADLINE: TUESDAY NOV. 24 AT 4 P.M. EST*
Week 6: Thursday Nov. 26 (Thanksgiving) — Monday Nov. 30, 2020.
Week 7: Thursday Dec. 3 — Monday Dec. 7, 2020.
Week 8: Thursday Dec. 10 — Monday Dec. 14, 2020.
Week 9: Thursday Dec. 17 — Monday Dec. 21, 2020.
Week 10: Thursday Dec. 24 — Monday Dec. 28, 2020.
Week 11: Sunday Jan. 3, 2021.
Postseason Schedule:
Wild Card: Saturday Jan.9 — Sunday Jan. 10, 2021.
Divisional: Saturday Jan. 16 — Sunday Jan. 17, 2021
Conference Championships: Sunday Jan. 24, 2021
Super Bowl LV: Feb. 7, 2021
Below is my proposed restructure of the playoffs.
Example of playoff seeding:
Division 1:
- Ravens (get home-field advantage throughout Division 1. Win East 1)
- Bucs (Win South 1)
- Niners (Win West 1)
- Browns (Win North 1)
- Eagles (Wild card)
- Seahawks (Wild card)
- Colts (Wild card)
Division 2:
- Chiefs (get home-field advantage throughout Division 2. Win North 2)
- Saints (Win South 2)
- Cardinals (Win West 2)
- Bills (Win East 2)
- Packers (Wild card)
- Cowboys (Wild card)
- Vikings (wild card)
The winners of each side of the bracket would meet in Super Bowl LV (yes, this means that arguably the NFL’s two best teams heading into the season, the Ravens and Chiefs, could meet in the biggest game of the year).
I believe this is the only way the NFL season can be safely salvaged, and it would be a nice twist to the current AFC vs NFC format. This plan is not pandemic proof. Nothing is pandemic proof, but I believe this format is the NFL’s chance to experiment with a shortened season, and the realignment of divisions, which does need to eventually happen.
Brandon Lewis is a columnist, radio show host and podcaster. Check out his podcast, Brandon’s World, here, and follow him on Twitter @real_bworld. Columns will be out every Friday!
