Yesterday, NFL public relations maven Brian McCarthy played coy about the awaited 2016 NFL schedule by making an announcement about an upcoming announcement:
'16 #NFL regular season sked is done. stay tuned for announcement on when it'll be announced pic.twitter.com/46jpmEwuJc
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) April 13, 2016
So the announcement about the announcement laid the groundwork for the National Football League to finally clear programming on its own NFL Network and ESPN to clear time on its own family of networks. Both networks will have multi-hour specials on the schedule release tonight in primetime.
NFL Network will have a three-hour “2016 NFL Schedule Release” show that begins at 8 p.m. ET Thursday which will be hosted by Rich Eisen. He’ll be joined on the set by Brian Billick, Eric Davis, Shaun O’Hara, Kurt Warner and Michael Silver.
They’ll reveal the entire 2016 NFL schedule including the new 18-game Thursday Night Football schedule.
Over on ESPN, Trey Wingo, Ryan Clark, Brian Dawkins and Herm Edwards will host “SportsCenter Special: NFL Schedule Release in which they’ll reveal the 17-game Monday Night Football slate.
We have the announcements from both NFL Network and ESPN. First, we go to NFL Network:
2016 NFL SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED THURSDAY, APRIL 14 AT 8:00 PM ET ON NFL NETWORK, NFL.COM, NFL NOW & NFL MOBILE
Three-Hour ‘2016 NFL Schedule Release’ Show on NFL Network Reveals Entire Schedule
All 32 Team Schedules & More Available on NFL.com, NFL Now & NFL Mobile
The 2016 NFL schedule will be released on NFL Network, NFL.com, NFL Now and NFL Mobile on Thursday, April 14 at 8:00 PM ET.
NFL Network’s coverage will be highlighted by 2016 NFL Schedule Release Presented by Verizon on Thursday, April 14 at 8:00 PM ET, a three-hour special hosted by Rich Eisen and featuring analysts Eric Davis, Kurt Warner, Shaun O’Hara, Brian Billick and Michael Silver. The special will break down the entire 2016 NFL regular season schedule, division by division, analyzing the top matchups and primetime games, including the 18-game Thursday Night Football schedule on CBS, NBC and NFL Network.
2016 NFL Schedule Release will include reports and interviews from several NFL cities and team facilities weighing in on the 2016 schedule, including Denver where the season will kick off.
NFL Network hosts, reporters and analysts will be stationed in the following locations:
- Denver – Jeff Darlington
- Dallas – Albert Breer
- New York – Kim Jones
- Pittsburgh – Aditi Kinkhabwala
- Arizona – Alex Flanagan
- Houston – Tiffany Blackmon
- Oxnard (Rams) – Steve Wyche
- San Francisco – Patrick Claybon
Verizon customers can watch a live stream of NFL Network’s 2016 NFL Schedule Release on their mobile devices with NFL Mobile, including Windows 8.1+, iOS and Android. To download NFL Mobile go to NFL.com/mobile or for more information, visit Verizon.com/NFL. Cable subscribers can also watch NFL Network across mobile, Xbox and Apple TV. Go to NFL.com/Watch for more information. Data usage applies for app download and use.
For fans who want to see their team’s schedule in its entirety, NFL.com is the place to go on Thursday, April 14 at 8:00 PM ET. NFL.com will provide complete team-by-team and weekly schedules of all 256 regular-season games, listing opponents, sites and times.
Additional NFL Digital Media features include:
- NFL Media’s Elliot Harrison will unveil a list of the 16 best matchups of the 2016 NFL Season, as well as a comprehensive look at the primetime games
- NFL Media’s Judy Battista provides a schedule round-up and analysis
- The Around the NFL crew of Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler break down the 2016 schedule, analyzing which teams have a tough schedules, which teams got lucky, the best revenge games and the path back to the Super Bowl for the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers
- NFL Now examines which teams travel the furthest during the year, the best homecoming games and the top five revenge games of the season
- Senior Fantasy Football analyst Michael Fabiano breaks down the schedules for the top players at each position and the fantasy implications
- Featured on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat will be custom graphics showcasing the top matchups by week including holidays and Thursday Night Football; animations of team maps showcasing the schedule of top teams in a unique way; Snapchat drawings of Thursday Night Football week-by-week matchups; and highlights of prior top matchups
- Interactive schedule pages on NFL.com organized by week and team
And here’s ESPN’s announcement on the NFL’s announcement. It’s much shorter than NFL Network’s announcement:
ESPN to Televise Two-Hour SportsCenter Special: NFL Schedule Release Show on Thursday, 8 p.m. ETESPN will televise a two-hour SportsCenter Special: NFL Schedule Release show on Thursday, April 14 in primetime coinciding with the National Football League’s announcement of the 2016 regular season schedule. The special will begin at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN and will switch to ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET. The program will also be available via WatchESPN.
NFL Live’s Trey Wingo will host with analysts Herm Edwards, Ryan Clark and Brian Dawkins. NFL coach and player guests are also expected to be part of the program, which will breakdown team-by-team schedules, Monday Night Football games and other primetime matchups.
In addition to ESPN television coverage, ESPN.com’s NFL Nation team reporters will have comprehensive analysis of all 32 team schedules and other games of interest.
And that will do it.
