LA Rams 17 game schedule slams team with frequent flyer miles

Are the LA Rams getting subtlely screwed by the NFL schedule again? The NFL has yet to resolve the three-time zones differential to anyone’s true satisfaction. East Coast teams that travel to the West Coast play game three hours later than their bodies believe it to be. West Coast teams that travel to the East Coast play virtually three hours earlier than the clock because their bodies are still stuck in the Pacific Time Zone.

And so, while the popularity of cross-pollinating AFC and NFC teams grows each year, so too do the logistical headaches. The LA Rams were one of the most traveled NFL teams in 2020, and by adding a trip to Baltimore to the 2021 NFL schedule, will likely be among the most traveled of the NFL once more.

The problem is the way that the NFL has broken down the proposed 17th game template.  In this format, the LA Rams will travel to their AFC counterparts of the AFC North and AFC South and will host their counterparts from the AFC East and the AFC West.  The problem? The AFC West teams are closer than other NFL Teams. In fact, a game against the AFC West LA Chargers is at SoFi Stadium, the shared home field of both the LA Rams and LA Chargers. Travel distance? 0 miles.

2021: AFC North – Away
2022: AFC East – Home
2023: AFC South – Away
2024: AFC West – Home

Are we too bitchy about this? After all, we have just gotten the news and this is the second ‘complaint’ with the new 17th game format. Ramblin Fan Noah Schlaebitz raised a valid pair of points to the fact that the NFL-NFLPA failed to include a second bye week in the modified schedule, and that the extra game could have been used as a marketing tool to enhance international interest.

No. Travel matters in the NFL. It took a heavy toll on the LA Rams in 2020 when the team had to abandon remaining on the East Coast to play two consecutive road games. If the Rams win that game at Buffalo, the team is at least 11-5 and wins a tiebreaker with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the fifth seed. Hmmm.

Let’s break this down a bit. The NFL took a shortcut to this dilemma. The oscillating pattern of away to home to away to home again has simplicity as its only basis. In real-world practice, the LA Rams could be stuck between traveling to the Baltimore Ravens and to the Jacksonville Jaguars every other year, compiling thousands more traveling miles than even other NFC West teams. Distance traveled, and time zone impacts, are too often ignored when the brain-trust of the NFL schemes the new schedule.

Meanwhile, the LA Rams have built the crown jewel of NFL stadiums. And yet, they will be giving more time in the facility to the tenant team, the LA Chargers.  Not to seem too petty about this, but wth?

If we have reached a consensus that the NFL is indeed a game of inches, then let’s try to be a bit more aware, objective, and fair to the time zones and travel miles impacting some teams unfairly along the way.