As the world is seemingly at a standstill, the NFL is still planning on having a season come September. While it’s already a unique with the move to digital offseason activities, the league is preparing the season as they normally would.
NFL Network’s schedule-release show begins at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday. As the name implies, all teams and fans will officially learn their week-to-week match-ups for the upcoming season. The show, which is set to be three hours in duration, will have representatives from 24 teams joining the broadcast including players, general managers and coaches.
From New England, coach Bill Belichick will be appearing in some capacity, according to the list tweeted out by NFL Media.
Updated list of guests who are scheduled to appear on @nflnetwork's 'Schedule Release '20' TONIGHT at 8p ET w/ @richeisen @ColleenWolfe @kurt13warner @DeionSanders @SteveMariucci @wyche89 pic.twitter.com/KvJXpgMvex
— NFL Media (@NFLMedia) May 7, 2020
The last time Belichick was seen was in his virtual war room on Nantucket during the draft. There, he was accompanied by his dog, Nike, who gained quite a following after his appearance.
The NFL put in a request to have Nike featured on their program, according to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal.
Yes, NFL Network officially requested to have Bill Belichick's dog make an appearance on tonight's show. SBD's story: https://t.co/MD8xMwmcJA https://t.co/mILxuZD4OG
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) May 7, 2020
Senior VP of programming and production for NFL Media Mark Quenzel confirmed the request to the Sports Business Journal.
“Yes we made a request for the dog,” Quenzel said. “We don’t know if we’re going to get the dog. The dog may be the star of the whole darn show.”
It’s not clear if Nike will actually make an appearance on the show, but the head coach will be there. That should be incentive enough to tune in, adding Nike would just be the icing on the cake.
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