Let’s change these rules.’ We write new rules and software. We come in, we all meet, look at schedules. I get up around 5 and take it from there. “Mike takes the night shift, and he watches the computers until 3 or 4 a.m. “As the mother of a 2-year-old, I like to think of it as babysitting,” she said. North is scouring readouts past midnight and into the early morning hours, then hands those duties to Carey. We’re just thinking about all these things, trying to figure it all out.”Īs with those computers, the group works around the clock. People just think I’m completely aloof and no fun to be around. “It’s usually me sitting in a corner staring off into space. Onnie Bose, vice president of broadcast operations, and Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of NFL Media, are also heavily involved. The team is composed of Katz, North, senior director of broadcasting Charlotte Carey, director of broadcasting Blake Jones and manager of broadcasting Nick Cooney. All this technology allows the Katz crew to be increasingly discerning, a blessing and a curse. The first of those didn’t arrive until April 17 this year, stomach-churningly late in the game. on injury: ‘A life-flashing-before-your-eyes kind of thing’ĭonald Parham Jr., the Chargers tight end who says his life flashed before his eyes in the end zone, recounts the injury from a fall that many feared might leave him paralyzed. In the middle is a small table that faces a wall of TVs, and the “clubhouse leader,” that year’s best schedule to date, is taped to the lone glass wall.Ĭhargers Chargers’ Donald Parham Jr. At the other, a white board filled with a convoluted diagram that looks like something out of “Homeland,” but is meant to explain some aspect of networks and early Sunday games. For years, it was permanently stocked with jellybeans and Mountain Dew and smelled of too many people working too hard for too long.Īt one end, Pinchbeck’s artifact of a pegboard. It’s one of the few offices with frosted glass, and precious few people have a key card to access it. The Val Pinchbeck Room is small - maybe 10 by 15 feet - on the fifth floor of the league’s Park Avenue headquarters. That room is now a relic too, with everyone migrating to video calls during the pandemic and staying with them once they proved more efficient. The room where decades of subsequent schedules were built is now named in honor of Pinchbeck, who died in 2004. The process makes the old system seem so antiquated and quaint, back when NFL executive Val Pinchbeck unscientifically would assemble the schedule by hand on a giant pegboard, working front-to-back and back-to-front, then stuffing a bunch of games in the middle. It would seem the most logical opening opponent for the Rams would be Buffalo or Denver.ĭallas played in last season’s kickoff opener at Tampa Bay and was the Rams’ opponent in the first game at SoFi Stadium and the first preseason game back in Los Angeles. The NFL is fiercely protective with its scheduling information, so trying to decipher the plan from the outside is mostly a process of elimination. “Pick whichever one you want and go down that road, and let’s see what the result and the schedule looks like.” “Now we can teach the computer that Dallas is a good option, Denver’s a good option, Buffalo, any of the NFC West opponents,” North said. 8 opener isn’t locked until the end of the process.Īs of the middle of last week, the group said, the visiting team for the opener was still in flux. But now, because computers might spit out competing schedules that look completely different, the matchup for the Sept. It used to be that Week 1 would have been determined weeks ago. The Chargers’ defensive rebuild continues with the signing of linebacker Kyle Van Noy, a veteran of eight NFL seasons who played in three consecutive Super Bowls. Naturally, everyone involved wants to feel good about the final product, and this collection of beautiful minds - led by Howard Katz, senior vice president of broadcasting - spends months analyzing, debating and reshuffling a Rubik’s Cube of 272 games aimed at maximizing viewership and fan interest while trying to maintain fairness for the teams.Ĭhargers Chargers sign Super Bowl veteran linebacker Kyle Van Noy, a former Patriots standout It’s all about making everybody equally disappointed.” “If any one of them jumps off the page as this guy is way too happy or way too disappointed, that’s probably not our best schedule. “Our job is to figure out which ones are truly onerous and unplayable, and which ones are, ‘Well, this isn’t ideal, but look at all the good that comes with it.’ “Every schedule has its warts,” said Michael North, who has been putting them together for 25 years. If all goes as planned, everyone will be unhappy. The team of five people who build the NFL schedule will unveil their latest masterpiece this week, with the news trickling out in the coming days leading to Thursday’s release.
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