Schedule Release News!!!
April 18th, 2018
The start of a great American national holiday is nearly upon us.
Joe is fired up like the rest of Buccaneers nation to soak in every last detail, date and time on the 2018 schedule, which will be released tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on NFL Network.
It really should be a 24-hour national holiday celebrated by fans chatting into the wee hours about their team’s schedule and projecting wins and losses — and guzzling beer.
This year comes with extra excitement for Bucs fans.
First, the team has leaked that it will be selling single-game tickets within hours of the schedule release. In past years, single-game tickets didn’t go on sale for many, many weeks, giving the team lots of time to pimp season passes and group sales first. It’s an awesome, fan-friendly move by the Bucs.
Second, the schedule release means the first Fan Retreat (road trip) with FanRetreat.com, Joe and Sage columnist Ira Kaufman will be announced before the NFL Draft. Last year’s extravaganza in Miami was trashed by Hurricane Irma, but more than 200 Bucs fans were confirmed for a big pregame party.
However, this year’s plans will be much better. Stay tuned!
Joe is yearning for the Bucs to open the season on the road against nothing-special Cincinnati (no hurricane chance) and then come home for Cleveland in Week 2 before the Browns build any significant confidence.
April 18th, 2018 at 9:54 am
I’m all in for your schedule suggestion, Joe! Way to long, we opend a season 2-0.
April 18th, 2018 at 9:55 am
THat would be a GREAT way to start the season!!!
Go Bucs!!!
April 18th, 2018 at 10:11 am
Please please PLEASE let them come to Cinci early in the season. I only get to see the Bucs once every 4 years (they alternate trips to CIN/CLE every 4 years) and I HATE when they come late and its winter already :(.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:13 am
So excited for schedule release. I’ll be traveling from Tampa to Baltimore for Bucs ravens this season praying it’s not a late November game for this Florida boy doesn’t do well in the snow!
April 18th, 2018 at 10:17 am
Please give us the afc south. If we can’t beat them then just blow this team all up and focus on hockey.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:17 am
Opening the season in cincy and Cleveland and I can still see the Bucs going 0-2. I mean, after the bears game last year, I had the Bucs going 11-5 after that performance 😳
April 18th, 2018 at 10:17 am
@BucFanFromOH I live in Ohio too, and yes please play Bengals first.
April 18th, 2018 at 10:31 am
as long as they have the first 2 games on the road im cool……don’t want to use the weather as an excuse as to why we had a lousy season or started out slow…..
hope pittsburg comes to town…..wonder which jersey the old man would wear?….lol….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
April 18th, 2018 at 10:38 am
Joe, the biggest schedule question? Will the Buccs have a winning record at home and get rid of the Den of Depression moniker. Let’s Go Buccs!!!!
April 18th, 2018 at 11:05 am
“It really should be a 24-hour national holiday celebrated by fans chatting into the wee hours about their team’s schedule and projecting wins and losses — and guzzling beer.”
DILLY DILLY!!
April 18th, 2018 at 11:06 am
Browns will be a tougher win this season.
April 18th, 2018 at 11:47 am
The browns?
Were wanting to catch them early until they get going.
Oh my……..that is truly sad.
April 18th, 2018 at 12:45 pm
I am also hoping for a trip to Cinci this year in September. On the second week of Sep the Reds are at home on Friday night (not a fan, but cool to see different stadiums). There is a great direct flight from Tampa that is some $$$, but better than a plane change to get on an egg beater. Some super hotels right on the river within a five minute walk of the both stadiums. Can’t beat it.
April 18th, 2018 at 1:40 pm
Schedule release day is a yawn, since projecting wins and losses 4+ months before the season starts and before we know what happens in the draft, etc. is one of the lamest activities of football fandom.
April 18th, 2018 at 2:08 pm
Blah, blah , blah
April 18th, 2018 at 3:27 pm
Maybe, just maybe, we could hand the Browns their 27th consecutive loss in a sweet serving of justice.
April 18th, 2018 at 4:12 pm
it’s always a treat for me when the Bucs play in Baltimore. Although I grew up in Palm Harbor and graduated from East Lake HS, I’ve lived in Baltimore for the last 22 years. My 13 year old daughter and I will be sitting right behind the Bucs bench, cheering obnoxiously…hopefully early in the season.
April 18th, 2018 at 5:14 pm
Along with my once a year trip down to Tampa, excited the Bucs are coming to NY this year so I can see them twice.
April 18th, 2018 at 5:15 pm
Although I don’t understand the pic for this article…. show the game in SD instead where there was a see of red out there!
April 18th, 2018 at 5:17 pm
Not sure what the big deal is. We already know who’s on the schedule so we’re just waiting on when? Jesus, some people need to get a life.
April 18th, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Lots of fans would like to be able to plan their fall weekend lives. Many fans have season tickets and/or make road trips to watch games. Why is this such a heinous thing?
April 18th, 2018 at 5:36 pm
If they don’t, fair to assume they just might have a losing record. And another losing season might cause heads to roll.
April 18th, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Joe, it’s not heinous but not a big deal worthy of mention. It’s funny but you seem to downgrade the draft hype as if it’s not a big deal when one could argue it’s the most important part of the offseason.
April 18th, 2018 at 7:33 pm
Jaboo, you shoudl try it. The best short weekend to any huge sports fan is seeing their home team at a road venue still in time for good weather, in a cool city, with the bonus of baseball season still going in the same place. For instance, Friday afternoon with fanstastic Mexican food, Friday night at goregous Minute Maid Park to wath the Astros play the Dodgers…just a short walk away from a five star hotel….being there when the Bucs arrive Saturday afternoon, margueritas and chorizos arouind the texas beers…going to dinner in the area (for more Mexican food) Saturday night…as the Bucs walk all over the place with friends and family and you get the thumbs up as they see you but no one knows who they are; seeing Johnson Space Center on Saturday as well….then gameday Sunday…invading the other teamn’s venue…with a full day of football…and a on-field pass pre-game to the Bucs sidelineand a flight home Monday…. Can’t beat it. It’s better when the Bucs win, and a bonus when you don’t almost get killed coming in from ARI to TIA and the pilot can’t get the gear down (like happened two years ago). But AA gave me 25K bonus points for surviving. But I’m 1-5 on the road with them….but it’s a great long weekend. So when the schedule comes out, and you start the planning…best airfares, find the Bucs hotel and jump on their reservation when the let you…quintessential sports weekend.
April 18th, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Last year’s trip was not so great…not much in Minn and no baseball that weekend as the Twins were gone, and a blowout loss with protests to boot. And the dang fried cheese curds were just cut up mozzerella sticks. But we checked the box for U.S. Bank Stadium. Still, looooong painful flight home to say the least. If I remember right, Joe was up there then and we couldn’t help but wonder where all the Vikings fans were all weekend. Not a single purple T around until gameday…and a helluva spanking from Case Freakin’ Keenum.
April 18th, 2018 at 8:53 pm
I’ve got a friend that runs a Bucs fansite on the internet. When the team starts 1-3 or 2-5, traffic on my friend’s website goes way down. A 2-0 start would be huge for him. He has two employees that are prone to depression and probably undiagnosed manic-depressives. They both failed math and neither is very smart, but they make up for their lack of mental acuity with hard work. They never take a holiday and are constantly chasing to the ends of the earth or at least the ends of the web to bring us Bucs news. His other employee is lazy, frequently neglecting to read anyone else’s posts and forgetting everyone’s name–calling The Commish “Jason” on the air and the like–but he’s really smart and his articles are uncannily prescient, sage-like in their wisdom and written with genuine skill and care even though he knows 90% of his readers can barely be classified as semi-literates.
My friend, his two slow-witted minions and his other lazy, but brilliant scribe deserve an optimistic start to the season. Years of cellar dwelling in the division, corners playing 12 yards off the receivers on third and five and 89%er owners who refuse to invest in the trenches have left them in an extended depression. So, please give us Cleveland and Cincinnati to start the season. For most of us here on JBF, the order in which we play a set list of teams is not a big deal, but can you imagine how much more traffic my friend’s website will get if we start 2-0 compared to 0-2? Just one time could we be playing meaningful games in November and December instead of talking about the draft half-way through the season and actually cheering for our team to lose so we’ll get a higher pick?
April 18th, 2018 at 9:34 pm
Not downgrading draft but after two months (from the combine to the draft), it wears thin around the six-week mark. Not sure the NFL has been banging the drum for the schedule release for two months.
Schedule release is a big deal for many. Again, they can begin to plan out the fall.
April 18th, 2018 at 9:40 pm
Joe was BUMMED there was nothing going on the weekend of the Bucs game (nor the week of the Super Bowl) in Minneapolis.
No Twins, no Gophers.
(Didn’t learn too late that Minneapolis was hosting a Division-III game at Target Field between two local “powerhouses” trying to set an NCAA attendance record for a D-III game. Didn’t know about it until 30 minutes before kickoff. Bands were marching down the streets in downtown, etc.)
As for the Bucs at Houston a couple of years ago, went to an Astros game on Friday night and while at the game, learned Van Halen was playing in Houston that night.
Joe was one p!sssed off mofo!!!
Few years ago when the Bucs played at Pittsburgh, day before Pitt played Temple. Yeah, dog of a game. Went anyway. Didn’t realize until Joe got into the stadium that Pitt was retiring Dan Marino’s number that day. Pretty cool.
April 19th, 2018 at 10:34 am
Joe Says: As for the Bucs at Houston a couple of years ago, went to an Astros game on Friday night and while at the game, learned Van Halen was playing in Houston that night.
HaHa. Van Halen would have been cool, but a sad reminder on how I lost Valarie Bertinelli to a rock star. She never knew that’s what happened, but it’s true.
April 19th, 2018 at 2:38 pm
I look forward to it as many of us do so we can make travel plans….but I dread it because all of the dopes try to predict their teams records 5 months before the season starts