Bills' 2022 Road Trips Shouldn't be too Daunting
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As is the case for most NFL teams in the Northeast United States in most seasons, the Buffalo Bills won't be spending unreasonable time on the road in 2022.
In fact, according to a breakdown released by bookies.com, they will travel just 13,984 miles, the 10th fewest in the league and fewer than all of their rivals in the AFC East.
Not surprisingly, the Seattle Seahawks will have the most exhausting schedule, being required to travel nearly 30,000 miles while changing time zones 34 times. Those numbers are spiked, however, by a game they must play halfway around the world in Munich, Germany.
On the other end of the spectrum will be the Pittsburgh Steelers, who will travel a league-low 6,442 miles without ever leaving the Eastern Time Zone.
Teams already know who and where they're playing this coming season, but won't know when the games will be until the league releases its completed schedule on Thursday evening.
Now, for the disclaimer:
Because travel for players is ostensibly stress-free, the impact it has on their performances often is overestimated.
Yes, teams on the west coast that have to come east for games can have their rhythms thrown off and perhaps lose valuable sleep time by crossing time zones. But for the players, the process requires little or no effort on their part — and comfort on the plane with the middle seat always open.
They just have to make sure they show up to the team bus on time. Everything else is handled by the team. It means no parking, no returning rental cars or riding crowded shuttles to terminals, no checking in on kiosks that always make you start over if you press one wrong button. No checking bags with or anything remotely similar. They don't even have to wait in lines to clear TSA security.
On their way to games, they can even make use of their time by reviewing plays and gameplans on their ipads.
On their way home, well, here's how it works in most cases on gamedays:
When players finish dressing after road games, they emerge from their locker room to a buffet area set up in a room or hallway adjacent to the locker room to grab as much food as they want. From there, they proceed to a TSA security checkpoint that's also set up at a private exit point within the stadium. This is obviously just for team personnel. From there, they are required to stay in line on their way just outside to the team bus a few steps away.
Once aboard, they are whisked via a police escort right to the airport and straight to the chartered plane on the tarmac, where they step right off the bus and right onto the plane for an immediate takeoff.
Again, the middle seats are open for the players, allowing them to spread out comfortably and sleep if they want on the flight home.
What this means for the Bills after playing at, say, any of their division rivals, even Miami, the players almost always are back in their homes before the beat writers leave the stadium after filing their stories.
So the stress you hear about when teams travel? That's on the fans and the writers, not the players.
That said, the less time teams spend on buses and planes, the better.
The Bills will have just one cross-country trip — to visit the Los Angeles Rams, perhaps for the NFL's Kickoff Game — and only two others (Kansas City and Chicago) that require trips out of their time zone this season.
In terms of miles, it's more than a reasonable schedule.
Performances will be affected much more by when the games are played and how they're spaced out and how much time they have to prepare compared to their opponents on a particular week.
We'll have a more accurate picture of just how fair things will be for the Bills by the end of Thursday night.
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Nick Fierro is the publisher of Bills Central. Check out the latest Bills news at www.si.com/nfl/bills and follow Fierro on Twitter at @NickFierro. Email to Nicky300@aol.com.
