The rumors have been swirling for some time that the NFL would announce the official 2012 regular season schedule sometime in April. After all, the preseason schedule has already been announced. The new Nike uniforms have been unveiled. The only major event left is the unveiling of the schedule, and a closer look at tomorrow night's ESPN programming reveals the perfect media outlet for it. Thus, it's expected that the NFL schedule could be unveiled tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. CT on ESPN.
Tomorrow night, ESPN's TV listings have blocked out a couple of hours at that time for a "SportsCenter Special." Pro Football Talk broke the rumor that it could be the announcement of the schedule, but quickly got a response on the news from ESPN:
An ESPN spokesman tells PFT that the listing reflects the network's estimate of when the schedule will be released, and not any actual inside information as to when the schedule will come out.
Still, there's enough smoke here to believe there's a fire, and the announcement is likely to come soon anyway. Once the schedule is announced, then media and fans can finish travel arrangements and teams can get a feel for the way the season will play out in various ways. The schedule will come before the NFL Draft, and this is the opening for it on-air.
For more on the team's offseason and the road ahead, check out Arrowhead Pride for the best Chiefs online community around.
We've already noted that the Chiefs are No. 20 on the toughest schedule for next season based on opponent records from last season. Once the announcement is made, we'll have the Chiefs schedule posted in this StoryStream.