The Kevin Sheehan Show - RFK News + Mike North On NFL Schedule

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Kevin opened with the breaking news from today that the city and Commanders are closing in on a $3B deal for the team to return to the city at the RFK site. Kevin then welcomed onto the show, the NFL's VP of Broadcast Planning, Mike North to talk NFL Schedule. Mike has been one of the NFL's "schedule makers" for the last three decades. How does the league view Washington this year? Will they open against the Eagles? Will they play on Thanksgiving? All of that and more with Mike North.   Go to zbiotics.com/SHEEHAN and use SHEEHAN at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics.Try hims.com/SHEEHAN for your personalized hair loss treatment options.Shop SKIMS Mens at SKIMS.com and SKIMS stores.Go To WindowNation.com. Buy 4 windows, get 4 free!If you want to bet on sports, go to mybookie.ag. Use code KEVINDC for a bonus!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. And then the place just goes electric with We Want Dallas. I mean, it brings the hair up. It still does.

That was the voice of Hall of Famer Russ Grimm talking about RFK Stadium in the chant of We Want Dallas back in January of 1983. The hair on the back of my neck does the same thing, Russ. time I hear it. Big news today. It looks like we are getting closer to the return of our football team to the city, to the RFK site. The show's presenting sponsor as always is Window Nation 86690 Nation or windonation.com if you need new windows. Mention my name. I promise you they'll take really good care of you. It starts with a free, no obligation in-home estimate. Before I get to the news about RFK today, I do have a guest on the show today, and for me, a really good one.

Mike North is the VP of Broadcast planning for the NFL. He is one of the schedule makers. He doesn't have to do a mock schedule. He's the one that creates the real thing. He's been doing it for 30 years. Really good stuff from Mike North coming up in the second segment of the show, and likely the third segment of the show as well on the NFL schedule and how the NFL views Washington this year when it comes to its high-profile games. I can tell you much differently the league views Washington than it used to.

So real quickly, I love that piece of sound from Russ Grimm. That was him talking actually about the Minnesota playoff game in the second round of the 1982 season playoffs. When Washington beat Minnesota 21 to 7, Rigo rushed for 185 yards, took a bow after the game. Dallas was going to be the opponent if they beat Green Bay the next day. and Washington fans wanted Dallas in the NFC championship game. And the chant of We Want Dallas started at the end of that Minnesota game,

and the stadium shook. And Russ Grimm talking about it and hearing it, yeah, for anybody that was there, and I was, the hair does stand up on the back of your neck. When you think about that moment, you hear the we, We want Dallas chant. At the very end of the show, I'm going to play Doc talking about the following week and what it was like in that stadium as they got ready to face the Cowboys in the NFC Championship game. All right, let's get to the news of the day.

Mark Seagraves from NBC Channel 4 was the one that broke the news just a little while ago. the headline, DC commanders close to a $3 billion deal for new stadium at RFK site. I'm going to read from the NBC Washington.com website and the Mark C. Graves story, because there is a lot in here. And there are things to talk about in terms of still some risk associated with this. It's not a done deal. They are closing in on a deal. Here's how it reads.

D.C. is close to a deal worth more than $3 billion to bring the Washington commanders back to the district and build a new stadium at the RFK Stadium site. The deal isn't final as negotiations are ongoing, so the number could change, but multiple sources familiar with the deal told news four that Mayor Bowser, and the commanders have the framework for a deal in place that would see the team paying the vast majority of the costs to build a new stadium and much of the money provided by the city going for infrastructure that will support the entire 180 acre development. The commanders would put up as much as 2.5 billion and the district would provide up to 850 million documents obtained by News 4 show. D.C.'s funding would go toward what are referred to as eligible capital costs associated with the stadium and infrastructure for the stadium and surrounding 180-acre campus,

including parking structures that will serve the entire development. The district's investment would be paid in installments with the first $500 million paid out between 2026 and 2030 for various portions of the work as the stadium and infrastructure are completed. The other 350 million would be paid in 2032 through taxes generated from the new development to cover costs of the stadium or stadium infrastructure. The final contribution by the team could be less than two and a half billion sources familiar with negotiations told news for. The deal calls for the stadium and stadium parking to be completed by fall 2030. Commander's owner Josh Harris has been clear he wants a new stadium to be ready for the 2030 season.

The mayor's office and the commanders declined to comment to News 4 here on Wednesday. All right. So there are a couple of other things in this story that I will get to here in a moment. So the $3 billion number is the number we've heard all along. And we've kind of heard that the team was looking for the city to come up with about a billion of the $3 billion. This story says the team puts up $2.5 billion, that the price is more than $3 billion, and the district provides $850 million for infrastructure. You know, roads, parking, the things that are necessary to make the stadium.

functional to get to the stadium, to get out of the stadium, and everything around it. Now, the development around the stadium, there is some information on that. The preliminary agreement News 4 obtained refers to the team as the master developer, meaning the team would not only build the stadium, but also develop the entire 180-acre campus, which the mayor and council members have said they want to be mixed use. residential and retail development. There's something in here about when this would move forward officially in the city. Bowser had said earlier in the week that the 2026 budget is complete and ready to go to the D.C. Council.

If the mayor has a deal for the stadium, it will have to be in the 2026 budget. But the 2026 budget complete, ready to go to the D.C. Council. Remember, the D.C. Council needs to approve this. There are 13 people on the council. Seven votes required. One hurdle is the looming $410 million in budget cuts. DC faces for the current fiscal year that were imposed by Congress. That must get resolved.

Then the mayor can present her budget for fiscal year 2026, which needs to be approved by the D.C. Council and Congress. So there is $410 million in budget cuts that were imposed by Congress, and D.C. needs to figure that out. I had Eric Flack from W. USA Channel 9 on radio last week, and he talked about this, but said that most of the people that he talked to felt like this would get resolved. Separate legislation needs to go to the council to iron out development and the use of the area and details for the site including zoning. Zoning apparently, according to this story, will be a big issue going forward. There are a group of residents who want a voter initiative on the ballot blocking a stadium by restricting what can be built.

on the site. You know, these are the NIMBY's, the not in my backyard people, which were always potentially going to be a part of the story here. In fact, there is some reporting that says a group called Homes, not Stadiums, is pushing back on the news about RFK saying they want DC voters to weigh in on what should happen. Now, if this goes to deep, voters versus just the council, that's not good. You don't want that if you want this stadium in DC. Historically, when voters vote directly on things like stadiums, the votes don't go well. Most people don't see the benefit of giving billionaires hundreds of millions of dollars to build a stadium. And so, and in many cases, they don't see the value in the stadium anyway. So that would

not be what I think the team and the city want out of this. They do not want a direct public vote on this. These are things that I'll talk to Tommy about on tomorrow's show, because I'm sure he'll have a lot of information as well. But look, I have felt for a while now, and I think a lot of you have. Once we got through some of those hurdles before Congress adjourned back in late December, it was, you know, looking up. It was starting to feel like, hey, this can happen. You know, as long as the city moves forward and they can come to a deal, this is where it should be. This is where everybody wants it to be. This would be a good thing for the city. It would be a great thing for the team. I did start to wonder in recent weeks why we hadn't heard anything.

Apparently, these budget cuts imposed by Congress were a part of the reason that we are here in mid-April and still haven't gotten or hadn't gotten until today any news on this. It's one of the reasons I reached out to Eric Flack last week from WUSA Channel 9 to have them on the show to sort of update where we were on all of this. But it certainly would appear here is if the odds continue to increase that at some point by the early part of next decade, hopefully the fall of 2030, they are playing on the RFK site. In a stadium, by the way, that would likely be in the 65,000 seat range because you need that at the very minimum to get a Super Bowl, it would be and will be, I'm pretty sure, a domed

stadium, not a retractable roof. Retractable roof stadiums are much more expensive. So it's not going to be the RFK from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and much of the 90s for football. It's not going to be an outdoor stadium. This will be a dome stadium so that, you know, they can make use of it year round. They can host a Super Bowl. They can host a Final Four. They can host World Cup. matches eventually. Big concerts, you know, Taylor Swift-style concerts. So anyway, yeah, good news, I think. You know, I think that there's still some hurdles probably that need to be cleared.

You know, the Holmes, not Stadium's group, can't let them somehow affect the way that this thing gets passed because a public vote more often than not would not. not pass. You need seven council members to pass this. And I would certainly assume that Mayor Bowser feels like there's a pretty good chance with the deal that she's cut that they will get this done. But remember, the city just gave Tedlianzus a lot of money for the renovation and refurbishment of Capital One Arena. But this is where it should be. This is where it was always supposed to be. the year that FedEx Field opened. It will be if they open up in 2030, 33 years, or 29 and 3, 32 years at FedEx Field.

And still a chance to have memories at FedEx Field because the 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 seasons, five more seasons will be played in Landover with what appears to be a most. much better football team. You know, one last thought, and then I'll save the rest of it for Tommy tomorrow. None of this happens with Dan Snyder owning the team. None of it happens if Dan Snyder owns the team. This is a direct benefit of ownership change. It's probably, in some ways, hate to say it, a benefit of the name change.

You know, I don't know if. the team were still called the Redskins, if it would be possible. Maybe in 2025, more so in 2020, it would be. But certainly the ownership change is significant in this outcome, if it ends up being the outcome. All right, real quickly, before I get to my guest, which I'm telling you, and I've already recorded it with him, he's great. And the NFL schedule and the process of it for me has been, you know, something that I've played around with with this mock schedule for nearly two decades. And I'm into that kind of stuff always.

And the popularity of the NFL schedule, it's been amazing to see the growth of this. You know, I mean, I guess we started now 10, 15 years ago with televising the results. But, yeah, this will be good. I think you guys will enjoy it. I did want to mention one thing. It's my annual suggestion to give the NBA playoffs a chance. I will mention it yes tomorrow to Tommy as well. I'm mentioning it today because I stayed up and watched Golden State Memphis last night

in the seven-seed versus eight-seed play-in game. And the game was great. It was intense from the game. from the opening tap until the end of the game. And it's just an annual reminder when you watch a game like last night the difference in this sport between the regular season and the postseason. There's no other sport, no other league that we consume, that has this much of a disparity between its regular season product

and its postseason product. It is night and day. Regular season NBA basketball stinks. It's low energy. It's not that competitive. Winning versus losing isn't very urgent. It seems to be an afterthought. In the postseason, it's the total opposite of that.

It is total commitment from the beginning of the game to win the game with the best players playing without load management. The commitment from not only. need these teams to win, but from, I think, the best athletes on the planet playing the game at a skill level that has never been matched. Sorry, Tom, and I'll say this to Tom tomorrow, the 68 Celtics or Philadelphia Warriors would get smoked by any team playing today. Last night's game was incredible. Steph Curry, 37 years old, 37. points, 15 of Golden State's final 19, playoff Jimmy Butler in full effect, 38 points.

I mean, this dude couldn't care less about the regular season. And then all of a sudden he turns in to a borderline top five-ish kind of a player when the playoff games start. It was a great basketball game, a wild game at the end. The Warriors prevailed, and now they get Houston, the two-seed in the second round. There won't be great games every night. There will be a time I can already, you know, predict coming in the next few weeks where I get somebody to tweet me and say, thanks for the suggestion, man. The NBA sucks.

I watched the Celtics beat the magic last night by 38. You get those games in the postseason, but you get a lot of games like last night. And it was great. It was great basketball. It was intense. there was a crazy scenario at the end where Memphis could not get the ball inbounds at the end of the game down three with 5.4 seconds to go. I had Chris Miller on the show with me this morning, the play-by-play voice of the Wizards on the radio show. And he heard me say that the defense to deny the inbound pass, you would never see that in the regular season, a five-second count on an in-bounds pass.

And he said to me, he said, 82 games. I saw it one time all year. Steph Curry was just amazing. I mean, 37 years old, and he's scoring 37 points. And then maybe the most impressive part of Steph's game was getting open to receive the inbounds pass to get fouled at the end of the game. He was double-teamed. Yeah, great stuff. Tonight, two more playing games. Now, these are the nine versus ten games, and you have to win or you're eliminated. Last night, the teams that lost weren't eliminated, they'll get another chance on Friday.

Tonight, it's win or go home. If you win, then you get a shot at last night's loser for the eight seed. Heat and Bowls, Mavericks, and Kings. If you want to bet the NBA playoffs, go to MyBooky. A.G. Use my promo code. Kevin D.C. and my bookie will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. They've got everything you want for the NBA playoffs. They'll have everything you need for the NHL playoffs, which are going to start this weekend as well. The playoff series prices are out. The game ones for this weekend, which are already set, are out. You can fire away on tonight's game as well.

MyBooky.ag promo code, Kevin, DC. NFL schedule talk with Mike North from the league office. He's one of the schedule makers. He'll join us next after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, if you're starting to notice your hair thinning when you look in the mirror, you're not alone. Life, you know, it gets busy and you can feel like there's not enough time. in the day to do something about it. Here's an idea. Try Hymns hair loss solutions. You can avoid jumping through a bunch of frustrating hoops and get access to treatment without even leaving

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Z-biotics is backed with a 100% money-back guarantee, so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to Z-Biotics.com, that Z-B-I-O-T-I-C-S-C-S-E-E-H-E-E-H-A-N at checkout for 15% off. All right now. is Mike North. Mike is the VP of Broadcast Planning for the NFL, aka the schedule maker. It is really nice to have you on the show. My listeners know this. This is going to be a lot more fun for me than for you.

Sorry about that, because I'm a total schedule geek, but I guess you are as well. How long have you been doing this? Just passed my 30-year anniversary on Monday. So I'm here forever. A light I'm grateful, humble, appreciative to be here and even more so to get to work on this project. I'm not the schedule maker in the intro. Thank you for that. I'm one of the schedule makers. There's a team of many and trying to add a lot more, honestly, to it. It's not really just, you know, one guy's gut and feel anymore.

There's analytics. There's data. There's predictive. There's player health and safety, travel considerations, competitive inequities, ratings estimates, international. there's so many people that contribute, but humbled and grateful to be part of the team. But there was a time when it was a really small group, right, that put it together? Yeah, it really was.

I'm here long enough to remember that, you know, the schedule process itself really wasn't what it's become. People, I know they cared, but they didn't care like they do now. It wasn't this cottage industry. There weren't people like you in the media who really put a lot of time and energy and attention on to it. So it was really just kind of one of those things where, yep, schedule kind of came out early to mid-April, kind of under the cover of darkness. Oh, the schedule's out? Oh, okay. Well, I guess we'll start planning our fall. Now as the league has grown and the fanhood and the passion of our fans has increased, now it really has become this sort of watershed moment kind of mid-May where everybody just kind of hits pause,

takes a look, and now we know how we're spending our fall. Yeah, it's amazing the popularity of the schedule release in recent years. All right, so there are 272 regular season games that you've got to put together over a four-month-plus period, which includes obviously the first game of the year, September 4th, Thursday night in Philadelphia with the defending champs. As you said, Sundays, Monday nights, Thursday nights, holidays, international games, you know, a Friday night game, a Black Friday game, the late season, Saturday triple header. So give us just, you know, a tiny bit about the process. when do you really start to get after it? Do you have to wait until after the Super Bowl? How much do the teams get a say in anything? What are the basics of the process?

Yeah, you've got the basics. We know the 272 once the previous regular season ends. There's a handful of standings-based games, the rest are rotation-based. So, you know, most teams know 14 of their 17 games for the next eight years, 10 years, 12, years, 24. and just depending on how the rotation works out. You know, some years you feel like you've got a really tough put. And other years you feel like, hey, we've got a chance to compete here. The exercise really starts the day after the regular season ends. Once we know the 272, kind of take a snapshot in your mind.

Oh, that looks fun and that looks amazing. And, oh, we got one of these this year. And it's been four years since we had one of those. And wonderful, we're going to have a Super Bowl rematch again this year. And kind of watch the playoffs play out through January. obviously the Super Bowl winner is the last piece to the puzzle because they're going to host the Thursday night opener in week one. Meet with all the network partners. Everybody's got a request list.

You could probably fill out that request list. And quite honestly, Kevin, everybody wants Dallas Green Bay and Philly, Kansas City. You know, no magic there. And then all 32 teams get their, you know, day in court. They all get a chance to submit a form with here's stadium constraints. Here's some travel considerations we'd like for you to keep in mind. Here's something we'd like to remind you about that you did do us. last year or three years ago or ten years ago that we hope you don't do to us again.

And again, a lot of that's evergreen. You know, nobody wants to play in Florida in September when it's 110 degrees. Nobody wants to play in Lambo in January when it's negative three degrees. Everybody wants a mid-season buy, open at home, close at home, no primetime games on the road, no three-time zone trips for night games. If we are going to go internationally, home the week before, by the week after, whatever it is. So everybody's got their calculus and everybody's trying to balance.

you know, the competitiveness and the revenue. You know, some teams will tell you give us our best home draws late in the year. But that usually means our better teams, and the head coach might be saying, you know what, I'd rather kind of catch a Kansas City or a Green Bay early in the season, maybe before they hit their stride, and give me, you know, the homecoming opponent for December, even if it is a tougher ticket sale. But maybe by then we're 10 and 5, and the tickets will sell themselves because of our record. So everybody's kind of doing their own balancing act of the competitive inequities and challenges and travel and stadium availability and balanced with the viewership estimates and trying to get the right games in the right windows for the fans.

What it really comes down to is everybody can look at the 272 and pick the 10 or 20 that they just can't miss. We're not doing our jobs if we're not putting those 20 in windows where every fan can find them. So whether it's national television in prime time or Sunday afternoon at 430, maybe. it wanders into a 930 a.m. Eastern time slot for one of our international games as we try to to grow that business, maybe it's on one of the streaming platforms as that becomes a key strategic initiative for us moving forward. So how do you get maximum value at each of those 272 assets? They're not our assets. They're the fans assets. Want to make sure that they get a chance to sample the ones that they're most interested in. Well, you brought up something that I was going to

get to in a little while, but I'll get to it right now because you mentioned, you know, everybody can pick out those 10 to 20. The 10 to 20 haven't included Washington in recent years. This year's different, isn't it? Very, very different. And honestly, as, you know, somebody who's been with the league for a long time, grew up on the East Coast, you know, when we were growing up, you know, the Redskins were a thing.

And yes, it's been a while, but I don't think, we'll see what happens. I don't think that fan base left. I think it's just kind of lying dormant. So now that they're competitive again, an NFC championship game appearance, I don't think there's any question you're going to find the commanders all over the national television schedule. And they've got a great schedule. You think about not only all those NFC games, obviously every year those matters, but you play a Detroit, you play a Kansas City, you play Chicago and Green Bay.

Like, there's a lot of really good games on the commander's schedule. So, yeah, whereas in previous years, you know, maybe a lot of Sunday 1 o'clock starts in the Bellway, That's probably not what's going to happen this year. I think you're going to see a real challenge for Coach Quinn and the team. We're going to be out of our routine playing a lot of Sunday nights, some Monday nights, some Thursdays, got to be in the mix for kickoff in Philadelphia, got to be in the mix again for Thanksgiving in Dallas. There's going to be all kinds of places where we're going to see commanders games this year. Because you've been around for so long,

was there a time where Washington, Dallas was the number one primetime matchup in Target each year? when you made the schedule? You know, it probably was, but we got to go back to, like, the Madden and Summer all days, right? Like, maybe with Thanksgiving, you know, Redskins Cowboys game on Thanksgiving as the Thanksgiving tradition has continued to grow. You know, that's where we capture a lot of casual fans. I think I saw a stat somewhere where, you know, 8 to 10 percent of NFL fans watch their first game of the year on Thanksgiving.

Wow. So you're with the family. The television's on. It's the Cowboys year after year and felt like for a long time it was, you know, a constant, you know, Redskins Cowboys just felt natural. Now, you know, you put a Redskins Cowboys game on Thanksgiving. I think we're still holding, what, 42 million from a couple of years ago when that game was on. And that was before, you know, the commanders became, you know, what the commanders are now.

And you add Debo and you add all these interesting pieces, a Commander's Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, you got to think is looking at, you know, the most watched regular season game ever for the NFL. But is that the best use of that asset? You know, you could put it on a Sunday afternoon on Fox and probably get 30, 35 million. You could, you know, like we said, have the commanders in kickoff. You can have them on Thanksgiving. You can have them on Black Friday. You can have them on Christmas.

You can have them in Madrid and have them go over and play Miami. There's so many ways to dole out these 17 commanders games, a lot more off. than we've had. Lots of hints from Mike for my mock schedule. I've been doing a mock schedule a week before the real one comes out for 20 years, almost 20 years. And by the way, when I get one right, that success. That shows you how deep the pool is. It shows you how unbelievably large the solution space is. It is truly infinite. And for anybody to get more than a handful would be a luckily a miracle. And we literally have no idea, sitting here on April 16th, 18th, whatever it is. literally do not have a single game of these 272 locked into its home yet. They're moving around. There's guardrails. There's constraints.

There's, you know, guidance, and we're kind of elbowing some games in a certain windows or a pool of games for other windows, but there's literally not a single game locked in, committed. I mean, you've been doing this long enough. We used to announce some of our games at the owner's meetings, right? Late March. Right. Literally haven't done that in years and could not do that. We don't have a single game locked in yet.

they're all still moving around. By the way, what do you make of, you know, starting like a week before all of these, you know, Twitter accounts that start, you know, tweeting out these games that they say are absolutely, you know, finalized, and they're nowhere near the truth. Do you even pay attention to that? Because that's become a cottage industry. All well and good, and love that people care and love that there's interest. But literally, anybody who thinks they know anything about a game or the schedule or a team schedule is fake news. I mean, there's just literally nothing locked in yet. And oh, by the way, none of this gets approved until the boss says it's approved.

So if we're looking at a, you know, May 13, 14, 15 or so time frame to release the schedule, kind of where we've been these last few years, second week in May, that means, you know, Monday morning the 12th, whatever that is, Monday, May 12th, we're in Commissioner Goodell's office, let the commissioner, computers run all weekend, probably have a nice long Zoom call on Mother's Day night. Everybody loves that. But then come in Monday morning with, here's some great options, commission. Here's one that has Washington, Philly for kickoff. Here's one that has Detroit Philly for kickoff.

Here's one that has Denver Philly for kickoff. They're all great. They're all slightly different, obviously. So it's not really like this one's better than that one. It's almost more like ice cream flavors at that point. Vanilla chocolate, strawberry. They're all delicious, Commissioner. or got to pick one and put it out at some point.

You give us another month. We'll find you a few more flavors. Here's a Rocky Road. Here's a prelines and cream. They're all great by that point, I hope. And I hope we've met with him enough along the way that we're not surprising him with anything. And those targets that he thinks we cannot miss on, you know, we've hit.

So now it's just kind of on the margins. And is this one a little better for Washington? If so, it's a little worse for Philly. Is this one a little better for CBS? If so, it's a little worse for Fox. and just kind of try to find that balance, thread that needle, and pick a winner, anybody who thinks they know what the commissioner is going to say is definitely, you know, not a chance.

Well, I mean, you just threw out three dates, the 13th, 14th, and 15th, and one of the things that I think we've all observed in recent years is there hasn't been a firm date. It kind of gets announced a couple of days or maybe a week before in terms of the date in which it's going to be released. But are those the three dates that you're targeting right? now for release? You just look at the last five years, I think, since the pandemic since 2020. It's always kind of that second week in May.

If by some miracle, we're holding an all-time winner, we're holding a fantastic schedule in our hands on May the 7th, and the commissioner looks at it and he says, this is perfect. Don't change the thing. Pencils down, we're done. In fact, let's get it out in a couple of days. It could come out on the 9th.

If we present one to him on the morning of the 12th, and he says, why haven't you listened to me? This is not what I asked you for. This is not what I want. I don't think this is our best work. Keep at it. We might not make the 13th, 14th, or 15th. Maybe it slides a week later.

I think everybody would adjust. I know people are waiting for it. I know fans are ready, buy tickets. Our teams need to book charters and hotels and anthem singers and frisbee dogs. And everybody's got, you know, a reason to get the schedule in their hands. We're trying to get it done as quick as we can. But wouldn't be responsible for us to put out a suboptimal effort. So I want to make sure we get the right one.

Second week in May, still the target. But that's not to say couldn't be the first week in May if the commissioner's happy with our work. And not to say it couldn't be the third week in May if we still have a little bit more work to do. Why did it become a post-draft release when for so many years it was pre-draft in April? Yeah, well, it came out early to mid-April because everybody had to go. And now, you know, people are so much more efficient, whether it's with their planning or their travel or the hotels or the ticket sales.

Everything's automated. Everything's online. Fans can make plans for, you know, travel and hotel and Airbnbs in a matter of minute. So I'm not sure there's that rush to get it out early April. And what we were able to do is you move the schedule release out of April. Now April's all about the draft. It's all about these kids. It's all about the mock.

It's all about potential trades. Who's going where? who should take whom, pro days, everything. And you really get to know these kids a lot better than I think we used to when, oh, we got to take a couple of days off from draft prep to talk about the schedule. Okay, let's get back to the draft. Now all of April belongs to the draft. And then once we now know where they're going to play,

then you've got a couple of weeks to kind of get excited and try to figure out when they're going to play. And if something major happens in the draft, a big trade, something we didn't expect, we've still got a couple of days at least to react to it. and maybe this team now should be in a little bit more national television, or maybe this team maybe shouldn't. There's a certain future Hall of Fame quarterback out there talking about playing again, and if he does, I think that means one thing for the team he signs for, if he doesn't, and we get all the way to draft,

and we're not sure if he's going to play and who the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Minnesota Vikings or whoever team he's talking to is good. You know, that's going to change our approach, and I think having a few days after draft buys us some cover to, kind of band-aid a few little things if we still need to change. And again, because nothing's truly locked in yet, haven't committed to anything, nothing set in stone, we've still got an opportunity to react and adjust to any news that gets made. All right, let's take a quick break. And when we come back with Mike North, VP of Broadcast Planning for the NFL, part of the

schedule-making team. We'll talk about opening night in Philadelphia. We'll get to that and a lot more after these words from a few of our sponsors. For those of you that haven't heard yet, skims now offers men's underwear, and I'm here to tell you, it's worth the hype. They sent me several pairs when we first started doing these skim spots two or three months ago. I'm now wearing skims primarily. It's great. It is totally worth it. I'm wearing their five-inch boxer briefs.

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entry door. 86690 Nation, windownation.com. We continue with Mike North, VP of broadcast planning for the NFL. Mike's been a part of creating the NFL schedule for three decades. And I want to talk about the opener a little bit more in Philadelphia. Thursday night, September 4th, the defending champion Eagles will play host to somebody. Is a perceived quality opponent, Mike? an attractive matchup between Philly and another good team or perceived good team. Is it necessary? Meaning, you know, it's the first game of the year. Everybody's going to watch no matter who's playing in it.

It's a great question. I mean, I think you've kind of seen we've done it both ways in recent years. You remember a couple of years ago we put Detroit in there off of their first winning season in a long time. They had knocked off – I think they knocked off the package, right? Last game of year, yeah. So they kind of played their way into that window. It maybe wasn't one of the top 10 or top 20 games of the season, you wouldn't think. But, man, Detroit went in their game all they could handle, got out of there with a win,

and sort of propelled themselves onto this, you know, new perception of Detroit where they're an NFC mainstay. So there seems to kind of play their way into that position, but, you know, you can't go wrong with a mainstay. Like you said, you put Baltimore, Kansas City last year into that window, and it came down to the very end with the kids' toe on the white and the back. of the end zone. And, you know, you've got 28 million people watching. So, you know, there's probably a floor to what that window could do. And I think we're going to want to put, you know, a game in there that our fans are going to care about. But I'm not sure we've really tested the ceiling of what that window could be. And as you look at the Eagles home schedule this year,

it's spectacular. I can make a case literally for every single game on their schedule. And obviously, Washington would be one of them. I mean, the last time we saw these two teams play was a whatever 30, 40-40 point blowout in the championship game. But, Like we said, you add Debo, you add some pieces on the line, Jayden's got another year, got a full off season. Who knows? Maybe Washington, Philly's a great window for that game in week one, and everybody can be excited about it for the next four months. But I can make the same case for Chicago.

You know, a Bears Eagles game there with Caleb and the coach who probably could have any job he wanted, and he chose Chicago and he chose to go work with the kid, and they've added some pieces to their offensive line. Denver coming off a playoff. Dallas getting their quarterback with a new coach. Detroit would be fun. The two best arguably teams in the conference last year. I can make a case for literally almost every game on their schedule.

The Rams have earned it. I mean, you can make a case for every single game. It's less about that one game and more about the trickle-down effect on the rest of the Eagles schedule, the rest of the Sunday night NBC schedule, the rest of the week one schedule. It's not just about checking one box. It's about checking a lot of boxes. So is Christmas Day now moving forward, with the exception of if Christmas is on a Wednesday, is it now a triple header on Christmas Day moving forward pretty much?

Look, I think depending on what day of the week it falls on, we might kind of wander back and forth between two and three games. I think the fact that, you know, we played on a Wednesday kind of shows we can do just about anything. And our clubs handled it well, you know, that was a very interesting, needle for us to thread last year. We needed to play a Saturday. Saturday beforehand. Same four teams. Four teams that all played each other, one home, one away, and that you thought or hoped and really believed, we're all going to be competitive. I mean, it worked out about as well

as we had all forwarded it. You know, we had some good games in there. Obviously, the Beyonce factor on that second game, you know, kind of ratcheted it up just a little bit. You're talking almost like Super Bowl level halftime, I assume. Flicks is going to look at something similar again for this year. But, yeah, I think we've demonstrated, and our fans have demonstrated that, you know, they'll find us on Christmas, whatever we play, whatever platform we play on, if we can find the right teams, and then they're still relevant. And like you said, quarterbacks aren't injured, and records are good,

and playoff implications abound, yeah, I think it's safe to assume that you're going to see the NFL playing on Christmas for the foreseeable future. If we can play on a Wednesday, we could probably play on any day. Exactly. What goes into scheduling a team on both? Thanksgiving and Christmas. Are the chances pretty low for that or not?

Yeah, I mean, we've done it. You know, obviously with Detroit and Dallas, always playing on Thanksgiving. You know, if you're going to do it to a fan base, you know, at least those guys are used to playing on Thanksgiving. We definitely had a season a few years back where the Lions played on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. That might be a bridge too far for the fans,

but, you know, if they're 12 and 4 and fighting for a playoff spot, you know, the fans will show up. That's the beauty of our game and then the beauty of our fans. So, yeah, it's definitely something we're going to have to be cognizant of. I'm going to have to keep an eye on it, but to tell you definitively that we're not going to play Christmas in Dallas, we're not going to play Christmas in Detroit. A team might not host Thanksgiving night and then come back hosting on Christmas. You know, we'll be sensitive to it. We talked all 32, like we said, they've all submitted their forms and their asks.

and some raise their hands, volunteer for the holidays, and others say, hey, this might not be the right thing for our fan days for our market. You know, you think about Baltimore's played on Thanksgiving, sorry, played on Christmas the last couple of years. You know, I'm not sure we're going to do that to them yet again, especially on the road, but it'll move around. The more games we play, the more likely that more teams are going to be in those windows, and at some point, you know, everybody's going to have to give at the office a little bit.

This is awesome with Mike North, the VP of Broadcast Planning for the NFL. I appreciate the time so much. A couple more. I'm actually curious about late season bad weather games because there was a time in which I thought you guys were trying to schedule games that increase the chances of having snow in them, in prime time spots. I don't know if you've done it as much recently, but snow games do well on television late in the season. Do you seek out those opportunities in scheduling? I'm not sure we seek them out so much, Kevin,

as much as we don't really run from them anymore. I think what we used to do back in the day, and this has gone back to, you know, Vow Pinch Back sitting at the board, building the schedule by hand. You know, it wasn't the television-driven league and the television-driven revenue that it is now. So back then, maybe there was a little bit more attention paid to things like,

I remember when I first started making schedules, like we didn't used to play the Arizona Cardinals. We didn't used to play the Phoenix Cardinals at home during the day, like the entire month of September. So we'd have to schedule them like three of their first four on the road, and one, whatever their home game was in September, had to be at night or something like that. Try to think about now that in places like Tampa Bay and Miami where we know it's warm in February, or like we said, the cold weather sites outdoors in December and January. I don't think we strategically try to put games in there, because you do run the risk of going the other way, right? You put a game in Buffalo,

and then all of a sudden you get one of those lake effects snowstorms, and now you can't even play the game in Buffalo, and we've got to go play it in Detroit or move it to the following day or something like that. So, again, I don't think we aggressively seek out these cold weather sites and root for bad weather, but, you know, you get some snow, and you're flipping through the channels, and you see an NFL game, and you see a little snow,

you tend to stick around a little bit. You think about that Cleveland-Pittsburg game on a Thursday night this year, and, you know, that's the logo, and then James, and that was probably the highlight of the Brown season, and I think 11 million people watch that game. So when you do see snow on television, it does kind of keep you tuned in. I'm old enough to remember. I think it was a Patriots Titans game in December years ago,

and Brady threw like seven or eight touchdown. Yeah. It was completely non-competitive. Nobody turned off the television. everybody just kept watching to see the weather, to see Brady throwing touchdown. So there's certainly something to it. If we were smart enough to be able to predict the weather, might we try to schedule a game in, you know, Cleveland or Pittsburgh or Buffalo to coincide with snow, just a little snow, not too much snow.

That would be great, but I'm not sure where our crystal ball is that clear. But I don't think we run from it like we used to. We have cold weather, outdoor sites. Our season, you know, has wandered now into early January. there's going to be games played outdoors in the cold in January, and sometimes it's going to snow. It's going to happen. By the way, assuming there's an 18-game schedule over 20 weeks down the road

maybe sooner than later, do we then absolutely get week one on Labor Day weekend? There's no way to avoid it, right? No, I'm not so sure about that. Look, there's no guarantee of going to 18 tomorrow. We were 40 years at 16 and 4, and we've been, what, three or four years at 17 and three. So I'm not sure this is happening tomorrow. There's obviously been a lot of talk about it.

And if we go to 18 games, I'm not sure it's a given that we're going to two buys. It might be 18 games over 19 weeks. There's been a lot of chatter about, you know, all these teams playing these Thursday games now, sometimes playing multiple Thursday games in a season, which gives you those two kind of 10-day rest periods after that plus your buy? Is that enough to get through, you know, an 18-year? game season. Does it have to be two buys? As a schedule maker, I'm a little bit hesitant.

You think about some of these weeks in the middle of the season right now, October, November. You might have, you know, six or eight teams on by. You've got a game at 9.30 in the morning on a Sunday in Madrid or Berlin. You've got a side-by-side Monday night schedule going. You might only have, you know, eight, nine games for Sunday afternoons on CBS and Fox. It gets a little thin sometimes on Sunday afternoons, and that's just with 32-by- Now you want to cram in 32 more buys? A little worried about how that's going to thin out Sunday afternoons. We'll make it work, of course, but I'm not sure the two buys is a given.

And even then, whether we start on Labor Day weekend or start the week after, maybe we go a little bit later into the regular season, maybe you do something different with the Pro Bowl or the Pro Bowl games, and you get rid of the off week between championship and Super Bowl like we used to do. So there's a lot of ways we can tinker with the calendar and figure out the right way to cram in our regular season and obviously still keep the focus on the postseason. And if Super Bowl weekend happens to land on President's Day weekend,

well, that could be a really fun opportunity for all our fans, for all our partners. There's certainly an eye on that as well. I'm not sure starting on Labor Day is the right thing. People are traveling. People are, you know, at the beach or whatever, and it's not really a historic television weekend. Right.

But the colleges are moving a little bit earlier. We might have to as well. it's all on the table, nothing's set in stone yet. What are the chances Washington plays in either Brazil or Spain this year? It is definitely a possibility. Personal opinion, I like them for kickoff better than I like them for Brazil in week one, but obviously not my decision. Spain would be pretty interesting, kind of right in the middle of the season.

It might cost you Thanksgiving, which is something we're going to have to think about. if you play the Spain game in week 11, let's say, and then Washington comes home to the buy in week 12 after Madrid, then you probably can't turn around and play on Thursday in Dallas on Thanksgiving. So is that the right thing? What would go into Thanksgiving instead? They're not even guaranteed their buy coming back from Madrid. We've got so many international games now, some of them early, some of them late. You can't give everybody their buys after international games. So do you go to Madrid, come back to a home game, and then quickly get on the road for a short week

Dallas on Thanksgiving. I don't know if that's the best way to, you know, set up the commander's schedule. So are they in the mix for both Brazil and Madrid? Absolutely, yes. Are they in the mix for kickoff? Yes. Are they in the mix for Thanksgiving? Yes. Are they in the mix for Christmas? Yes. We're not going to be able to do all those things. So we're really just going to come down, like we said, to Vanilla Chalkat Strawberry at the end. This one's got the commanders in kickoff, so they're not in Brazil. This one's got them in Madrid, so they're not on Thanksgiving. This one's got them on Thanksgiving, so they're not on Christmas. got them on Christmas, so they're going to play two short week Thursdays.

They're all going to be a little different. I love the flexibility. I love the optionality. As you said at the beginning, this is probably something we haven't really had with Washington games for, you know, decades, really. So this is exciting for us. It makes all the NFC East games more interesting. The NFC. East crosses in the NFC North, so that'll be fun this year. There's a lot of really good games.

No question the commanders are going to find themselves in some pretty prominent windows. What was the opponent on the United States? What was the opponent on their schedule that stood out to you the most? This year for coming up? Yep. You know, obviously the division games matter a lot. I'm just not sure, you know, you've got six of them every year. I mean, those are, I don't want to say commonplace, but hard to say one of those stands out.

I would probably look at like a... I probably look at Kansas City, I guess, right? I mean, I remember the last time the commanders went out to Kansas City. It was probably eight years ago would be my guest just by rotation, and it was probably a 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon game that was available in 15. Actually, they played Monday night. They played Monday night at a row. You're right, you're right.

You're right. You're right. You're right. You remember that. I do remember that. Perfect opportunity to do that. Run it back again. But it could also be a Sunday night game.

It could be a Thursday night game. It could be, you know, one of those Sunday afternoon 425 games, you know, save it for later in the season. season. You think both teams are going to be competitive. You know, a commander's chief game down the stretch, Jaden and Mahomes, playoff spots on the line, Sunday afternoon, 4.30. It's kind of cold in the Northeast, everybody's staying home and watching TV anyway. That sounds like 28, 30, 32 million people watching that game.

I think that would be a really, that would be a fun one. But obviously the Dallas games are going to matter. You know, I don't remember the last time you've been to Lambo, but we're going out to Lambo this year. certainly the return trip to Philly, you know, on the championship game rematch. There's a bunch. It's going to be a really fun year, but if I had to pick one, I'm probably looking at Kansas City. Is there a max of prime time or standalone spots?

There's not a max of standalone spots just because we have so many more than we've ever had before. And as we think about primetime games, it's really more about, you know, what's right for the fan. Like if we were going to schedule the commanders in five or six primetime games, they probably shouldn't all be at home, right? I'm not sure that's the right thing to do to ask the fans to come out at night over and over and over again. Same thing competitively on the road. They shouldn't all be on the road. The coach isn't going to want to play road Sunday night, road Monday night,

road Thursday night, week after week. So going to have to balance between the competitive impact of the primetime games and the fan-friendliness of moving the games to prime time. Again, I think this is something where the competitiveness of the team, the record, the upward trajectory, if you will, buys us a little. little bit of cover. I don't think the fans are going to really scream and yell when they see a few home primetime games because the team has earned it. So it's six or so, seven maybe as a result of flex, but got to balance them between home and a way. Want to be fair competitively

and also want to do right by the fans. This was awesome. Really appreciate it. Thanks, Mike, and good luck with everything. My absolute pleasure. Happy to come back on after the schedule comes out. You've had a chance to compare it to your mock and you've had a chance to react and talk to your listeners, happy to come back anytime. I will reach out. Thanks for doing this. Appreciate it. Pleasure. Take care. Well, that was fun, at least for me. Mike North, everybody, one of the key people involved in making this schedule every year. You know, I feel like I've got to go back and listen to it again. He gave us a ton of information. I don't know how much of it was legitimate kind of subtle hinting about Washington's schedule. He can't tell us anything concrete,

in part because the schedule's not finalized yet. But, you know, I think there were a couple of things. And again, I'll go listen to it again and maybe have a little bit more tomorrow. But I do think it's interesting that he said, look, they're a candidate. You know, Washington is now one of those teams. You know, there are 10 to 20 matchups a year that everybody can pick out, and Washington's going to be involved in several of them. You know, twice against Philly, on the road against the Chiefs, on the road against the Packers. You know, they've got a home rematch with Chicago, the Hail Mary game from last year. They've got the Lions at home. Washington's going to have some super high-profile games. He mentioned, you know, six prime times

are pretty much the max, but you can get flexed a seventh. But I did think it was interesting that he said, look, they're a candidate for, you know, opening night in Philadelphia. They're a candidate for Brazil, night two, against the Chargers. They're a candidate for Madrid in Week 11 against the Dolphins. He said they're a candidate for Thanksgiving. They're a candidate for Christmas Day. One of the things that he definitely shared with us, no doubt, is that they're not more likely than not going to be.

to play in Madrid against the Dolphins and then play on Thanksgiving Day because of the tight turnaround. Madrid is week 11. That's November 16th. And Thanksgiving's November 27th. So if they came back after Madrid and there's no guarantee of a buy week when you come back. So they come back and then are they really going to make them go from Europe back home to

play a game? and then, you know, on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and then a short trip to Dallas four days later. It kind of sounded like, you know, it's either or, Madrid or Thanksgiving. Maybe it's Madrid and Christmas Day. Maybe it's Madrid and opening night. They're going to be a candidate for all of those things. And if you're not following this part of the conversation,

Washington has road games against the Chargers and the Dolphins. And the Chargers and the Dolphins are hosting the Brazil game on Friday night, September 5th after the kickoff game the night before. And then Madrid's hosting its first game with Miami as the host. And Washington has a scheduled road game against Miami as well. Good stuff from him. I'm just looking at my notes as he was going along. It looks like the schedule, you know, May 13th, 14th, 15th. It'll be out.

So I'll have my mock definitely early the week before in case it comes out late the week before. But yeah, I mean, look at what Washington has schedule-wise. I mean, I have a feeling they're not going to play at Philadelphia. in the opener. I think Philly's got such a great home schedule and I bet they're going to save Washington Philly

for something like Christmas Day or Fox is going to get a Philadelphia Washington game. There's no doubt. Fox is not going to lose both Philly Washington games. So there's only one

of the two more likely than not that'll be prime time. That Kansas City game on the road at Arrowhead, that to me is, you know, Mahomes and Jaden Daniels. And that, look, that could be a CBS, you know, 425 game on a Sunday. But that feels like Sunday night football. That feels like, you know, a huge spot. Maybe Christmas Day. You know, the Chiefs have actually put themselves out there as a team that wants to be a regular host.

on Christmas Day. Now that we know the NFL is going to play on Christmas Day every year, the Chiefs have already volunteered themselves to be, you know, a Detroit or a Dallas on Thanksgiving equivalent on Christmas Day. You know, a game at Lambo. I think Washington's going to get one of the two international games. My guess would be Madrid. But man, he really did push kind of the Redskins Cowboys, you know, the Washington-Dalice Thanksgiving Day thing, and talk about how it would probably be the most watched game of all time on Fox if it were to happen that way. If it's actually on Fox this year. I don't know if Detroit is the Fox game or the CBS game, and Dallas would be the other, obviously. Yeah, interesting stuff, interesting conversation.

what a challenge it is to put it together, you know, and all of the different requests you get from teams. One thing he addressed that I was going to ask him, but he kind of addressed that it goes into the thinking, is net rest days, you know, the number of days between games. You know, and at the end of the year, you know, we've had that essential research. You know, the guy, I think it's, I think it's Aaron. Shats or it's Warren Sharp. It's one of the two that does the net day's rest study once the

schedule comes out. And teams that have negative net rest day numbers tend to not do as well as teams with positive net rest day numbers. So they try competitively to keep that as fair as they can, but there's only so much you can do in putting together a schedule. But yeah, can you imagine the teams and their requests. First of all, they've got, sometimes they have events in their stadiums, you know, concerts that have already been scheduled, those kinds of things. Yeah, I love that stuff. I know not everybody does, but I love that stuff.

And I can't believe that I have not had him on the show before. I have reached out to people like him in the past. And the reason I reached out to him this time is that I saw, that he was doing media. And I'm not so sure that some of the, including him in recent years, that they've done a ton of media before this schedule. And he did say that he would be willing to come on

after the schedule comes out. So I will definitely be reaching out to him after this schedule is out. All right. That's it for today. Back tomorrow with Tommy. I'm certain that throughout time, people have had this exact same feeling when they had to go into great conquests. It's what most guys think the Super Bowl experience will be like, but the Super Bowl pales in comparison to this.