Schedule
The 2009 NFL Draft was held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 25 and 26, 2009. The 2009 season began on September 10, 2009 (under the current scheduling system, this is the latest date the NFL can start its season as the season typically starts the weekend after Labor Day, which falls on its latest possible date in 2009). This will be the eighth and tentatively final year that the league uses its current scheduling rotation. Implemented in 2002, this rotation schedules all teams to play each other at least once every four years and to play in every other team's stadium at least once every eight years (notwithstanding the regular season games played overseas as part of the NFL International Series). No later than the end of the 2009 season, a decision will be made whether to continue using this scheduling formula. There are proposals to expand the regular season schedule to 17 or 18 games per team, possibly allowing for all teams to play abroad in the International Series. There is also a proposal to modify the scheduling formula to ease the burden of cross-country road trips, especially to relieve East Coast teams from having to travel to Oakland & San Diego or San Francisco & Seattle during the same season.
For the 2009 season, the intraconference and interconference matchups are:
Intraconference
- AFC East vs. AFC South
- AFC North vs. AFC West
- NFC East vs. NFC South
- NFC North vs. NFC West
Interconference
- AFC East vs. NFC South
- AFC North vs. NFC North
- AFC South vs. NFC West
- AFC West vs. NFC East
The 2009 schedule was released on April 14, 2009 and featured the following highlights:
Read more about this topic: 2009 National Football League Season