A few weeks ago I declared that the first two days of the NCAA Tournament were the best sporting days of the year.
I stand by that statement, as well as my Top 5 (Sunday at the Masters this year, however, was #1) but today is perhaps the most underrated day of the sporting year.
For at 5:15 in the evening, the NFL will release its 2004 schedule.
Sure, it’s not really an event, but tonight and tomorrow fans everywhere will be perusing their favorite teams schedule and figuring out which games they’ll win, which ones they’ll lose and how they’re going to get out of their friends wedding that is the same day as a marquee Week 15 match-up.
It’s fantastic. There’s nothing better than scanning the schedule, feeling the excitement of seeing a Monday night game, the thought of how you’re going to get tickets to the home opener and the annual question “why does the NFL keep scheduling the Browns on Monday night?”
Only the NFL can get fans excited five months before the first game of the season.
Today would be a great day even if the NFL had announced months ago that April 14 was the day the schedule was going to be released. But because the NFL releases the schedule with only one day of warning, the surprise-factor involved makes the day even better.
The NFL releases the schedule when it is complete. There is no set date, they put it out when it’s ready.
So yesterday night, the league announced that they planned to release the schedule today, and then they quietly do so (although this year the NFL is having a special show that announces the schedule on the NFL network, meaning that all 8 million DirecTV will be able to watch).
Most people will be pleasantly surprised later this afternoon when they log onto ESPN.com and see a link to the master schedule on the front page.
Redskins fans will be eager to see when Joe Gibbs will make his first appearance at home.
Cowboy fans will be betting on in which game Drew Henson will see his first action.
Radiers fans everywhere will still be questioning why Al Davis hired Norv Turner.
And Frank, the one remaining Cardinals fan, will circle September 12 on his calendar, the day that the NFL returns and everybody has a chance to win it all.

Tomorrow: NFL Schedule Breakdown Extravaganza