Schedulin'

Sun.	Sept. 9	at Seattle	4:15 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Sept. 16	NEW ORLEANS	1:00 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Sept. 23	ST. LOUIS	1:00 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Sept. 30	at Carolina	4:05 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Oct. 7	at Indianapolis	4:05 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Oct. 14	TENNESSEE	1:00 p.m.	CBS
Sun.	Oct. 21	at Detroit	1:00 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Oct. 28	JACKSONVILLE	4:05 p.m.	CBS
Sun.	Nov. 4	ARIZONA	1:00 p.m.	FOX
Sun.	Nov. 11	-- bye week --
Sun.	Nov. 18	at Atlanta	1:00 p.m.^	FOX
Sun.	Nov. 25	WASHINGTON	1:00 p.m.^	FOX
Sun.	Dec. 2	at New Orleans	1:00 p.m.^	FOX
Sun.	Dec. 9	at Houston	1:00 p.m.^	FOX
Sun.	Dec. 16	ATLANTA	1:00 p.m.^	FOX
Sun.	Dec. 23	at San Francisco*	8:15 p.m.^	NBC
Sun.	Dec. 30	CAROLINA	1:00 p.m.^	FOX

* nationally televised game
^ subject to time change

I would love to complain about how NFL has turned what should be an otherwise meaningless act of releasing the schedules into something of a celebration by teasing us for two weeks with opening day and turkey day games, and then releasing the schedules one by one on the NFL Network akin to what CBS does for Selection Sunday. I would love to point out how we should all ignore this event and treat it for the over-hyped creature that it is, yet here I am about to give you my initial thoughts about the schedule. Soooo, since I don't want to be a hypocrite I won't tell you to ignore the release of the schedule and focus on more important things like say....Sanjaya's hair.

• (Shiver Me Timbers) Good news, there are no cold weather games this year. The closest the Bucs have to cold weather games are San Fran and Houston in December. Personally, I think the Bucs record in cold weather games is a bit exagerrated since they were just dreadful for roughly 20 years and would have lost those games even if they had been playing in Hawaii. But, Gruden's passing offense does not tend to do well in the cold with the New England game two years ago and last year's Pittsburgh game coming to mind.

• (At Least They Will Know How to Get Around TIA) For the 6th time in five years the Bucs will play the Skins, and for the fourth straight time the Skins will come to Tampa. Now it isn't a surprise that Tampa Bay plays Washington, we know exactly who the Bucs play from the moment the prior season ends, but I can't imagine who in DC could have so annoyed the NFL that they keep forcing the Skins to play in Tampa.

• (No Rain in Mons) It sure is nice of Pacman Jones to get banned for a season during the year his Titans play the Bucs.

• (Thanks NFL) This is a much easier schedule compared to last season when the Bucs had to play three games in five days (or something like that). With the exception of the early season @ Carolina, @ Indy stretch there are no difficult back-to-back games for the Bucs. Personally, I prefer front loading the tough games since it seems teams tend to have more post season success if they get hot in the second half of the season as compared to the first half. Throw in the late bye week and the fact that the final game is at home against a division rival, and I would venture the Bucs have one of the easier schedules in the NFL.