NFL teams have been granted permission to release 2020 schedule early
By Josh Hill
For the first time ever, the NFL will be releasing its schedule early on social media.
We don’t know when we’ll have live sports back in our lives, but the NFL isn’t letting that stop it from planning anyway. The league is going to announce the schedule for its 2020 season on Thursday and will be bringing it right to your phone.
Despite a global pandemic halting life as we know it, the NFL carried on with its draft at the end of April, bringing much needed reprieve from the doldrums of reality. The league is hoping to once again take center stage this week with the unveiling of its complete schedule for the upcoming season.
According to The Big Lead, NFL teams will be releasing their schedules ahead of the NFL Network show slated to air on Thursday night. That means if you don’t want to wait for the primetime reveal, chances are your favorite team will have already released its schedule.
"The NFL Network is broadcasting and live-streaming a 2020 schedule release show on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, but The Big Lead confirmed that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has communicated to teams that they can release their individual schedules a half hour before the show begins on their social media platforms."
While the move to release the schedule amid a global pandemic is laced with hubris, it does give fans hope that a season could happen one way or another. Sports returning prior to a COVD-19 vaccine seems dangerous and is the main sticking point in the argument to do away with live sports until the virus can be contained.
The NFL returning without fans has long been discussed as an option and is something that MLB could end up beating them to the punch on. Time will tell if we are in a place where sports can logically return in September, but that won’t stop the NFL from planning for it anyway.
And as we continue to drift deeper into the sportless void reality has presented, even something as simple as a scheduled release can provide a much needed distraction.