NFL explains reason for Bears’ strange division schedule quirks, three-game road trip originally appeared in NBC Sports Chicago
O The Bears 2024 schedule is here Wednesday and had some notable peculiarities, including that the The Bears Don’t Play a Divisional Game until Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers.
Six of Bears the last eight games are against the NFC North opponents. Meanwhile, the other three teams in the division each play two NFC North games before Week 11. But the Bears aren’t alone in this strange divisional schedule, as the Pittsburgh Steelers also don’t play a divisional game until Week 11. Week 11.
On Thursday, NFL vice president of broadcast planning Mike North discussed why the Bears’ schedule came with the unusual divisional slate.
“We certainly didn’t intend to not have division games [in the early part of the season],” North said in a video conference with reporters. “It looks like a college basketball schedule, non-conference games first. It wasn’t intentional, but it also wasn’t necessarily something that we looked at and thought was unfair.”
North noted that the NFL has always preferred to have divisional games late in the season to maximize drama.
“There is a legacy of [former senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations] Howard Katz years managing the scheduling process: It’s divisional games at the end of the season. It’s always something we look for, not pushing it past Week 18. More divisional games later in the season usually means fewer teams have secured playoff spots.
North said the league will likely consider such an extreme divisional schedule next season.
Charlotte Carey, NFL broadcast director, noted in “Up and Adams” That’s because both the AFC and NFC North are such exciting and highly competitive divisions, the NFL agreed to have the final part of the calendar loaded with these games.
Another oddity in the Bears’ schedule comes in Weeks 10-15, when they play three straight home games, followed by three straight road games at Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota. The Vikings did the reverse – three away, three at home – during the same period.
North doesn’t view the Bears’ Detroit-San Francisco-Minnesota trifecta as a negative because of the rest between games.
“We talk about three-game road trips like it’s the worst thing you can do for a team,” North said. “I’m not sure that’s true. I think sometimes it’s who you play, not where. We could cut someone’s three-game road trip short by eliminating the third road game and giving them a home game against Kansas City or San Francisco. Is this really better?
“You think about this three-game road trip for the Bears from a competitive standpoint, the first one is Thanksgiving. Then you have a 10-day break before the second game. And then the third game is on Monday night. So you have extra days between Games 1 and 2 and then 2 and 3. I hope they don’t look at that schedule and think it was unfair.”
The Bears will play four preseason games, including the Hall of Fame Game against the Houston Texans on August 1. They will open the season against the Tennessee Titans at Soldier Field on September 8th.
