2013 NFL Schedule Will Not Be Announced on April 16, Release Date Unknown

Despite a report from John Ourand of Sports Business Journal that claimed the NFL would reveal the full 2013 schedule on April 16, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk was in contact with NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, who stated that it will not be ready to release Tuesday.

UPDATE: Monday, April 15, 11:30 a.m. ET by Donald Wood

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello took to Twitter to share with the world that the schedule is not done yet and the league will release it as soon as it is completed:

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Aiello told PFT via email regarding the release of the schedule, “It will not be tomorrow but could be in the next week or two. We’re working to finalize it.”

Matchups have already been determined.

The NFL typically releases schedules before the draft (this year's draft takes place April 25-27), and that should be the case once again this year.

While the release of the game dates and times won't play any serious role in the decisions made on draft day, coaches in the NFL already plan for the future, and the complete schedule is information they need.

Since each franchise already knows which teams it will play and where, the soon-to-be-released schedule will give front office personnel an idea of how they should build practice and meeting schedules throughout the season.

The exact dates of when matchups will occur is a big focus of the eventual release as well, because squaring off against the Patriots in October is much different than traveling to play New England in January.

The schedule won’t necessarily alter the way teams draft, but every organization wants to know when and where it will play each game as soon as possible in order to begin its preparation for 2013.

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