“One of the things people don’t realize is how sophisticated our scheduling process is,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told The Times.
But now, because computers might spit out competing schedules that look completely different, the matchup for the Sept.
The room where decades of subsequent schedules were built is now named in honor of Pinchbeck, who died in 2004.
The Val Pinchbeck Room is small — maybe 10 by 15 feet — on the fifth floor of the league’s Park Avenue headquarters.
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.
The team is composed of Katz, North, senior director of broadcasting Charlotte Carey, director of broadcasting Blake Jones and manager of broadcasting Nick Cooney.
People just think I’m completely aloof and no fun to be around.
“As the mother of a 2-year-old, I like to think of it as babysitting,” she said.
Let’s change these rules.’ We write new rules and software.
“So every time a team sends us a request and says, `Hey, can you put us on the road in Week 2, we’ve got Elton John or Lady Gaga,’ you think, `Yeah, sure,’ ” North said.
“But then the team says, `Don’t ruin our schedule as a result.
That’s why the schedule isn’t announced until after the draft, as a new influx of players can make matchups considerably more interesting.
As it stands, NFC games belong to Fox, and AFC games belong to CBS.
Just because an NFC team is on the road, for instance, that will not guarantee a game will belong to Fox.
At the end of the season, when everything is done, the NFL will have to make sure it hits certain minimums for all of its partners, so there will be a certain number of times each AFC team will need to land on CBS.
Sometimes it’s legitimate and based in some historical data and win percentages that we should go back and look at.
Honored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his “long and distinguished reporting in the field of pro football,” Sam Farmer has covered the NFL for 25 seasons.
