NFL Road Trip 2010 - Not gonna happen

Today the NFL released its full 2010 schedule which means it's time for me to plan yet another NFL road trip that I am not going to be able to take.

To review, the NFL has a limited number of weeks - just 17 weeks with 42 game dates. There are 17 Sundays (obviously) with the other 25 dates spread around Thursdays, Saturdays, and Mondays. In most cases, there is only one game on those dates, so you are forced to be in that city on that date on at least 15 of those dates (assuming you can see one game on each Sunday). That is quite the restriction. The other caveat is to limit the amount of driving. Ideally, just one cross-country trip would be enough.

With all that said, I spent a couple of hours this morning checking out the schedule and working out the permutations and combinations. The best I could do is the schedule below, which does involve all 32 teams in 17 weeks.

Thu Sep  9 Minnesota at New Orleans
Sun Sep 12 Arizona at St. Louis
Mon Sep 13 San Diego at Kansas City
Sun Sep 19 Seattle at Denver
Sun Sep 26 Tennessee at NY Giants
Mon Sep 27 Green Bay at Chicago
Sun Oct  3 San Francisco at Atlanta
Mon Oct  4 New England at Miami
Sun Oct 10 St. Louis at Detroit
Mon Oct 11 Minnesota at NY Jets
Sun Oct 17 New Orleans at Tampa Bay
Mon Oct 18 Tennessee at Jacksonville
Sun Oct 24 San Francisco at Carolina
Sun Oct 31 Minnesota at New England
Mon Nov  1 Houston at Indianapolis
Sun Nov  7 Indianapolis at Philadelphia
Mon Nov  8 Pittsburgh at Cincinnati
Sun Nov 14 NY Jets at Cleveland
Sun Nov 14 New England at Pittsburgh (same day as Cleveland)
Mon Nov 15 Philadelphia at Washington
Sun Nov 21 Tampa Bay at San Francisco
Mon Nov 22 Denver at San Diego
Sun Nov 28 Miami at Oakland
Mon Nov 29 San Francisco at Arizona
Sun Dec  5 Carolina at Seattle
Thu Dec  9 Indianapolis at Tennessee
Sun Dec 12 Philadelphia at Dallas
Mon Dec 13 Baltimore at Houston
Sun Dec 19 New Orleans at Baltimore
Mon Dec 20 Chicago at Minnesota
Sun Dec 26 New England at Buffalo
Sun Jan  2 Chicago at Green Bay

There are a number of intriguing matchups with the Saints, Vikings, Colts, and Patriots totalling 10 of the visiting teams and with only one West Coast jaunt it's certainly a reasonable trip. But there are several long drives that would be too tiring for just one person to deal with. The total highway mileage comes to 27, 900 miles taking 450 hours over 120 days. Doesn't sound like much, but there are 18 journeys of 600 miles or more, at least the way I've planned it. For now, I don't think I can do it, so it looks like I'll be waiting for NFL Road Trip 2011.

Best,

Sean