What About Helping the West Coast?

The NFL is changing upcoming schedules to benefit the East Coast teams who have to make the long trek out to the West Coast. 

The new changes will prevent East Coast teams from having to play more then two West Coast games per season, and completely eliminating any chance that they would be matched with back to back West Coast away games.

Seahawks, 49ers, Chargers, Raiders, Cardinals fans—I invite you all to collectively roll your eyes

No one can deny that there are more teams on the East Coast, and that it is an acceptable proposal—understandable and fair.

That said, what about the 10 AM Pacific Time, early bird special games that we (West Coast Teams) have to travel 3,000 miles to, just to get get stomped on.

I can mainly put the Seattle Seahawks' awful season in 2008 down to the fact that they played four games on the East Coast (Buffalo, Miami, Tampa Bay, and New York). Only one was not played in the morning (Tampa Bay), and all four were losses, with one the third worst in franchise history (Giants). The Giants meanwhile had played three of there last four games at home. The Buccaneers also had played three of there last four at home before facing Seattle. The Dolphins were on a three game home-stand when they faced the Seahawks.

Arizona played back-to-back games and lost both, to the Redskins and the Jets. They were blasted by the Jets in the second game, getting 56 points bombed on them. They also got shredded in a 40 point loss to New England in a morning start. The Jets also had played three out four games at home at the time they played the Cardinals.

The Chargers played three morning games in a span of four weeks at the Dolphins, Bills, and Saints (In Europe)—all three were losses. The Dolphins had played four out of five games at home when they faced the Chargers. 

The 49ers went 2-4 in their morning games, actually faring better than the aforementioned three. They went 1-2 in their morning East Coast games (losses to Giants, Dolphins), but one win was against an inept Bills offense that was spluttering at the time, and only managed to score three points. The Giants had played three out of four at home when they played the 49ers. The Dolphins had played four out of five games at home before facing the 49ers

The Raiders went 1-3 in their morning East Coast games (losses to Dolphins, Ravens, Bills), the one win proving to be an exception to the rule—a dramatic upset of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that kept them out of the playoffs. The Dolphins were on a three game home-stand before they faced the Raiders. The Bills had played three of there last five at home.

It has become all to much of a reality to fans of West Coast teams that we are put at a severe disadvantage because of the early start to these games.

Now, while the East Coast teams are whining about traveling on their private jets, with their custom leather seats, I see an East Coast bias clearer then ever. 

I don't propose the same change for West Coast travel. We are accustomed to the long haul, especially up in Seattle, 900 miles removed from even the nearest West Coast team. We don't whine about our travel, because, it really doesn't affect us.

These 10 AM PT starts are what murders us. If the NFL is going to feed its East Coast bias monkey and take away our small advantage, fine. 

Start games on the East Coast at 4:15 ET, 1:15 PT. That's not even asking for a schedule change, it's asking for a sparing of sanity. 

We won't whine about back-to-backs, we won't whine about two East Coast games in three weeks, or even three in four weeks.

It allows us West Coast teams to wake up and have some Starbucks, rather then getting routinely trampled by teams who are already onto their lunches.

If you're going to give the East Coast teams a back rub, give us a foot rub—start games at 1:15 PT.