The San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, and Los Angeles Chargers have banded together in advance of next week’s owners’ meetings to try and get a rule change in place related to their road schedules. Albert Breer is reporting the three times submitted a bylaw that would require the NFL to not schedule road teams for more than three away games that have a scheduled kickoff time prior to 1:00 p.m. in the time zone of their home stadium.
And here's an interesting new bylaw that'll be voted on ... "No team will be scheduled to play more than three away games with a scheduled kickoff time prior to 1:00 p.m. in the time zone of their home stadium (w/o consent)."
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 20, 2018
Last year, the 49ers played five games that had a 10 a.m. PT kickoff. In 2016, they played four such games, and in 2015, they had five such games. It is worth noting that in 2014 and 2013 they only had two such games. It makes sense that the better they are, the more likely some of those potential 10 a.m. PT road games are in the 1:25 p.m. PT game of the week slot.
NFL owners will vote on rules and bylaws at the owners’ meetings, but if this bylaw is passed, I’m curious to see if it will be implemented immediately, or wait a year. The NFL has been working on schedule permutations for a while, will release the new schedule later next month. If they make this change, it will most certainly impact what the final schedule will look like.