The NFL released their 2008 regular season schedule this afternoon.

The Buffalo Bills return to the Monday Night Football schedule on November 17 against the Cleveland Browns, and that is certain to be the “hot ticket” on this year’s home schedule.

The opener is set for September 7 against Seattle. And the one thing everyone was certainly watching was who was going to be the opponent for the game up in Toronto.

The answer to that is the Miami Dolphins. Remember a few years back when the NFL realigned its divisions? Buffalo then had the golden opportunity to move into the AFC Central, and annual games against geographical rivals - Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati. “No way” said The Old Geezer, who waxed poetically about the great Buffalo-Miami rivalry and how he didn’t want to lose that by shifting divisions. Well guess what? These days Don Shula is off selling his steaks, Jimmy Johnson is on his boat and combing his hair, Bryan Cox is giving the finger and spitting in someone else’s direction, and nobody really gives a rats ass about the Fish anymore. And now the Dolphins will have the nice warm and cozy Rogers Centre to visit in December, and at worst a neutral crowd in their grills. Nice job all around!

Today was USRT schedule planning day, and with Pete being off from work, we both met up at Dunn Tire Park and the Bisons day game, fired up the laptop in the pressbox and waited for 2PM to come around.

The planets did not align well at all… we had hoped for a Colts home game on 9/28 so we could tie in two major college venues on the same trip; the Colts are on a bye week. For 10/26, we wanted a Saints game in New Orleans, so we could also visit the LSU Tigers that weekend. The Saints have a “home” game that weekend… but it will be played at London’s Wembley Stadium. Dave Ricci asked pointedly what kind of wusses we really are that we just don’t hop over to the UK that weekend. We ignored Dave and left him to his merciless heckling of former Bisons and now the Syracuse Chief’s Hector Luna.

So as of now, this is kind of what our fall USRT football schedule looks like, although only the Indy weekend is a lock:

Sat 9/21 Akron at Army (NCAA-f)

Sat 10/11 Iowa at Indiana (NCAA-f)
Sun 10/12 Baltimore at Indianapolis (NFL)

Sat 10/25 Alabama at Tennessee (NCAA-f)
Mon 10/27 Indianapolis at Tennessee (NFL)

Sun 11/23 Grey Cup - Montreal (CFL)

For the October trip, Florida is our “Plan B” - Saturday in Gainesville with Kentucky at Florida, then the Bills and Miami at Dolphins Stadium. We’re going to wait for the NHL schedule in July and see what else might fit before making final plans.

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