Blame Pope Francis, Phillies for Eagles schedule lapses

The Eagles must travel for three of their first four games this fall but will be home for three of their last four. Pope Francis and the Phillies are the reasons.

The Phillies have scheduled homestands during Weeks 1 and 4 of the NFL schedule. The pope is visiting Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families during the third weekend of the season.

"As a result, that . . . puts us on the road for [those] weeks," Eagles president Don Smolenski said Wednesday, a day after their schedule was released. "That kind of puts more pressure for more games on the back end of the schedule. I think the league did the best they could, and I think they try to do a great job trying to accommodate everything, and certainly we had some unique circumstances."

The Eagles will open the season with three of their first four games on the road for the first time since 2000. They have not played three of their final four games at home since 1998.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput sent a letter to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell requesting that no game be in Philadelphia the weekend of the papal visit (Sept. 26-27), the Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirmed.

With up to 2 million people expected on the Parkway for the pope's Sunday Mass, the city's workforce and resources will be devoted to the visit, and the hotel availability is "nonexistent," Smolenski said.

"To put the pressure on with an added Eagles game and 70,000 people, traffic, resources, etc., it would have been very, very difficult on everyone," Smolenski said. "If it could be avoided, I think [it's] beneficial for everybody."

Monday, Sept. 28, could have been a date for a home game because the Phillies will be off after a road trip, but the issue was hotel availability, because many visitors booked lodging with a Monday checkout. The Eagles and their opponent would not have a place to stay.

Smolenski maintains "constant communication" with Phillies chief operating officer Michael Stiles about scheduling for the Eagles preseason and the early part of the season.

The papal visit and Phillies schedule are not the only considerations the Eagles needed to present to the league. The Temple football schedule, including an Oct. 31 visit from Notre Dame, and the Army-Navy game Dec. 12, will create busy weekends in the city.

The Eagles submit their scheduling forms with notable dates at the end of January. The NFL gave them a bye week on the weekend of the Notre Dame game, but they could not send the Eagles on the road for the Army-Navy weekend.

"The league tried to do all it could to create a situation where we're not playing back-to-back, but moving all the pieces for all the different teams, it just didn't work this year," Smolenski said.

There are three weekends with back-to-back games at Lincoln Financial Field: two Temple games and the Army-Navy game. There's also a Saturday-Monday turnaround. Smolenski said this is not a problem, and the stadium staff is experienced in handling it.

Smolenski once worked for the International Hockey League and witnessed the challenges of schedule making, so he can empathize with the NFL's jigsaw puzzle.

"I know they're juggling 32 teams, 31 venues, they're juggling television, looking at weather, there's holidays," Smolenski said. "There's so much that goes into it. They try to balance it. And they're trying to balance short weeks. . . . That's not easy to do."