Pro Football Schedules

This book explains how the NFL determines each team’s opponents and how the league’s scheduling format has evolved throughout the years. It includes a history on the evolution of the pro football schedule, explores all of the scheduling formulas used in the National Football League, American Football League and the All-America Football Conference, and presents home-and-away opponent charts from 1933 through the 2017 season.

Ivan Urena graduated with a degree in journalism from New York University. A member of the Professional Football Researchers Association, he lives in New York City.

Ivan Urena
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 260
Bibliographic Info: appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2014
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7351-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0227-1
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments v

Preface 1

Introduction 3

1933 23

1934 25

1935 27

1936 28

1937–1942 30

1943 32

1944 32

1945 33

1946 (NFL) 35

1947–1949 (NFL) 35

1946–1948 (AAFC) 37

1949 (AAFC) 38

1950 39

1951 40

1952 42

1953–1959 44

1960 (NFL) 45

1961–1965 (NFL) 47

1966 (NFL) 49

1967–1969 (NFL) 50

1960–1965 (AFL) 53

1966–1967 (AFL) 54

1968–1969 (AFL) 55

1970–1975 56

1976 71

1977 80

1978–1987 84

1988–1994 116

1995–1998 135

1999–2001 145

2002–2017 154

Appendix A: Schedule Release Dates (1933–2013) 213

Appendix B: Number of Teams and Games Played by Season (1933–2012) 214

Appendix C: Divisional, Conference and Interconference Games Per Team/Season (1933–2012) 215

Appendix D: Number of Regular Season Games in Pro Football History (1920–2012) 218

Appendix E: Scheduling Facts and Figures 221

Appendix F: Site Priorities for Postseason Games (1933–2012) 235

Chapter Notes 245

Bibliography 249

Index 251

Winner, Nelson Ross Award—Professional Football Researchers Association
“recommended”—ARBA; “provides great detail regarding the year-to-year schedules for every team from 1933 through 2012…the first publication to explore in detail the historic NFL scheduling process”—Journal of Sport History; “examines the methodologies employed by the National Football league (NFL) and other historical football governing bodies”—Reference & Research Book News.