32 Teams in 47 Days Planning the perfect NFL road trip in 2014

sharonorn

Season tickets to the home slate. That's nothing.You found a way to go to all 16 of your team's games? Easy.That pales in comparison to the perfect NFL road trip. It is a grueling journey that takes an iron will and tests the perseverance of even the most ardent NFL superfan.What am I talking about here?Well, I built a computer algorithm to find the shortest po sible trip to see every NFL team during the 2014 season. The only rules were no flying (it's a road trip!) and a full eight hours of rest each night. I Tyler Smith Jersey  even took into account the curvature of the Earth to complete the trip in minimal time.The number of po sible road trips in a 256-game season is unthinkably high. There are about as many po sibilities to consider as there are atoms in the observable universe. Or, to incorporate a sports analogy, the odds of someone randomly to sing together my road trip are longer than the odds of someone filling out a perfect March Madne s bracket four years in a row. This algorithm sorts through all the po sibilities and spits out the optimal trip in seconds.Who in their right mind would travel to see every team? A football purist would. A fan not tied down by geographical roots. A fan willing to skip in order to attend the riveting instead. Simply, a fan willing to do whatever it takes.I am that fan -- despite my football misfortune and disadvantage growing up.You see, I was raised in the pro football void that is Los Angeles. The and moved away when I was a baby. I don't have an allegiance to either. (Why would I?) I'm not asking you to feel bad for me. I'm just asking you to understand. To understand that growing up in L.A. without an NFL team is like watching the World Cup without a nation. This is what drives a man to spend his time concocting an epic tour of unadulterated football fandom.Below, I lay out the road map to see each NFL team by Week 8. Would this be a world record? Not sure. But I am sure there is no quicker route to all 32 teams, given . You cannot do better.Here are some pertinent bullet points of the trekredictions for the 2014 NFL seasonWho will win major awards? Which teams will make the playoffs? Who DeMarcus Ware Jersey  will lift the Lombardi Trophy? Our analysts weigh in. -- 17 games. -- 47 days. -- 4 hours of average driving time each day. (I a sumed each game took a maximum of four hours, you could drive an average of 60 mph, and you could not drive to London.) -- 11,589 total miles traveled. -- East Coast games are finished in early October, before it gets too cold. -- 6 divisional matchups. -- 6 Monday Night Football games. -- 4 Thursday Night Football games. -- Bonus: You get to see the and twice.Without further ado, here's the 17-game slate:1) Sunday, Sept. 7, 1 p.m. ET (Week 1): 2) Monday, Sept. 8, 7:10 p.m. ET (Week 1): Distance traveled from prior game: 587 miles3) Thursday, Sept. 11, 8:25 p.m. ET (Week 2): Distance traveled from prior game: 524 miles4) Sunday, Sept. 14, 1 p.m. ET (Week 2): Distance traveled from prior game: 352 miles5) Monday, Sept. 15, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 2): Distance traveled from prior game: 496 miles6) Thursday, Sept. 18, 8:25 p.m. ET (Week 3): Distance traveled from prior game: 533 miles7) Sunday, Sept. 21, 1 p.m. ET (Week 3): Distance traveled from prior game: 862 miles8) Monday, Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 3): Distance traveled from prior game: 0 miles9) Sunday, Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 4): Distance traveled from prior game: 1,564 miles10) Monday, Sept. 29, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 4): Distance traveled from prior game: 520 miles11) Thursday, Oct. 2, 8:25 p.m. ET (Week 5): Distance traveled from prior game: 625 miles12) Sunday, Oct. 5, 1 p.m. ET (Week 5): Distance traveled from prior game: 681 miles13) Monday, Oct. 6, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 5): Distance traveled from prior game: 683 miles14) Sunday, Oct. 12, 1 p.m. ET (Week 6): Distance traveled from prior game: 510 miles15) Monday, Oct. 13, 8:30 p.m. ET (Week 6): Distance traveled from prior game: 348 miles16) Sunday, Oct. 19, 4:25 p.m. ET (Week 7): Distance traveled from prior game: 2,053 miles17) Thursday, Oct. 23, 8:25 p.m. ET (Week 8): Distance traveled from prior game: 1,251 milesTotal distance traveled: 11,589 milesSure, every fan has his own idea of the perfect road trip. It could be the longest-distance drive Ezekiel Elliott Jersey  po sible -- maybe to Miami in the winter. Or the shortest one po sible, to get home before dinner. Or it could maximize the number of playoff teams seen in a three-week span. Or you might maximize the number of AFC East home games over the entire season. My algorithm can calculate whatever you deem ideal.For me, the perfect trip is to see every team, compensating for the absence of a team of my own.NFL ROAD TRIPPIN' -- FUN FACTSIn the proce s of completing this project, I unearthed a number of random facts. One thing to keep in mind: When I refer to each destination, I'm actually specifically talking about the city in which the team plays its home games. With that bookkeeping note out of the way, allow me to empty the notebook ...LONGEST ROAD TRIPSThe longest road trip in the NFL is Seattle to Miami, running a total of 3,285 road miles. Only five other trips are longer than 3,000 miles -- all of which include Seattle, Miami or New England. Here's that list:1) Seattle to Miami: 3,285 miles2) New England to San Francisco: 3,125 miles3) New England to Oakland: 3,098 miles4) Tampa Bay to Seattle: 3,091 miles5) Oakland to Miami: 3,081 miles6) Seattle to New England: 3,043 milesSHORTEST ROAD TRIPSTaking the -to- trip out of the equation -- as the two teams share MetLife Stadium -- there are only four road trips that are le s than 100 miles:Battista: XLIX things to watch in 2014With a nod to SuperBowl XLIX, Judy Battista points out 49 things to watch -- the players, the games, the trends and more. 1) Washington to Baltimore: 32 miles2) San Francisco to Oakland: 33 miles3) Philadelphia to New York: 96 miles4) Philadelphia to Baltimore: 99 milesPOTENTIAL DOUBLE DIPSShort drives and Sunday Night Football occasionally will provide an opportunity to attend two games in one day this fall:Sunday, Sept. 14 (Week 2) 4:25 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 33 milesSunday, Sept. 28 (Week 4) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 265 milesSunday, Oct. 5 (Week 5) 1 p Amari Cooper Jersey .m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 207 milesSunday, Oct. 12 (Week 6) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 96 milesSunday, Nov. 2 (Week 9) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 289 milesSunday, Nov. 2 (Week 9) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 134 milesSunday, Nov. 16 (Week 11) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 240 milesSunday, Nov. 16 (Week 11) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 181 milesSunday, Nov. 23 (Week 12) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 207 milesSunday, Nov. 23 (Week 12) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 96 milesSunday, Nov. 30 (Week 13) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 241 milesSunday, Dec. 14 (Week 15) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 99 milesSunday, Dec. 14 (Week 15) 1 p.m. ET:  8:30 p.m. ET: Distance between games: 96 milesRANDOM TIDBITS-- Some road trips are exactly the same distance as others. New England is exactly the same distance to Green Bay and St. Louis: 1,187 miles. -- The most "central" stadium in the NFL is Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium, which minimizes the total distance to all 31 other teams. The most remote team is Seattle, followed by the other West Coast teams. -- While Indianapolis is the  DeMarcus Lawrence Jersey most "central," St. Louis is the "average" location, being pushed west by the distant Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and San Diego. In a sense, Indy is the median and St. Louis is the mean.HARDEST STADIUMS TO GET TOFrom Chicago, the closest stadium is Indy's and the furthest is San Francisco's. Surprisingly, San Francisco's stadium (not Seattle's, New England's or Miami's) is the furthest drive for half of the teams in the league. Here are the hardest places to get to for the NFL's 32 teams:1) San Francisco: 16 teams2) Se