The NFL schedule officially is out. And it appears New England fans who want to closely follow what Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski do with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won’t have many scheduling conflicts.
The Patriots and Bucs won’t play a game at the same time until Week 15 of the 2020 regular season — something the league said was pure coincidence.
“Putting together the 256-game schedule is very complex — it’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy told ESPN via email. “The minimal conflicts here are coincidental.”
Coincidence or not, it’s quite the move by the NFL.
Both teams have five prime time games this fall. And now Patriots fans (if they want to, of course) can keep up with Brady and Gronk without taking their focus away from New England’s slate of games.
The Pats are scheduled to open their season Sept. 13 at Gillette Stadium against the Miami Dolphins, while the Bucs begin 2020 on the road against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints.
