When the NFL schedule was released I was thrilled to learn that the Jets have a primetime game this year, and a good one at that! They square off on Monday Night Football at San Diego against the Chargers in week 3. However, I have since read an article on newyorkjets.com by Editor-in-Chief Randy Lange, entitled "The '08 Sked's Monday Night Crunch." Lange very carefully articulates the perils of having to play a Monday night game in a different time zone (particularly an east coast team traveling into the pacific time zone) and then having to return home for a 1pm Sunday game the following week. The Jets this year are faced with such a predicament and Lange points out how recent history has not looked kindly on teams dealt such a difficult scheduling constraint. First of all, it hasn't happened very often since 2002 which would suggest that the scheduling gurus are possibly making a conscious effort not to put teams in this bind. (For example, east coast teams should be granted byes after a west coast Monday nighter, or possibly a Sunday night game which would afford them several more hours to adjust and prepare.) And when it has happened, victims of this circumstance have not fared well, losing most games for which they return home.

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