NFL Springs Into Action, Wielding a Clean Slate

The NFL shows off its marketing clout every September to February, when it revs up the country’s most popular entertainment vehicle and lets it steamroller all sports media for five straight months.

April is when the NFL displays its marketing genius.

Major League Baseball has just started a new season, front-loading its schedule with home-and-away Yankee-Red Sox series while booking the first big-league home game in Washington, D.C., in 34 years. The NBA is getting ready for its playoffs. The PGA Tour is still basking in the glow of a Masters playoff won by Tiger Woods.

And this week, the NFL has grabbed headlines away from them all by treating the release of its 2005 schedule as if the league office had discovered life on Mars, which gets everybody talking about the NFL again, just to help everybody get in the proper mood and mind-set for the league’s greatest public-relations brainstorm of them all, next weekend’s NFL draft.

Nothing of great importance is happening in the NFL right now. Every year, the NFL has to play some games, so releasing the schedule is just business as usual. So is the draft. Teams need to stock their rosters because they have games to play every year.

Never mind the Farrelly Brothers; the NFL is the uncontested master at stoking a fever pitch. On what should have been a nondescript Wednesday in April, two days before the income tax deadline, the NFL carefully choreographed its schedule release by announcing it on the NFL Network -- and within minutes, millions of pro football fans and sports media talking heads were studying the results as if they were tea leaves.

The Packers lead the league with 10 nationally televised games in 2005 -- is this a sign that this could be Brett Favre’s farewell season?

The Falcons will make three appearances on “Monday Night Football” -- is that a sentence anyone expected to read during this lifetime, or the next? What does that say about the drawing power of Michael Vick? Does this mark a strategy change for the NFL, which has long preferred selling team logos over individual names? And what happens to the “Monday Night Football” franchise if Vick -- a.k.a. the Atlanta Falcons’ franchise -- gets hurt again?

The Raiders, 5-11 in 2004, will have four prime-time games in 2005; what was that the Minnesota Vikings were saying about the Randy Moss Effect?

Meanwhile, the Dolphins, Buccaneers and Jaguars will not appear on “Monday Night Football.” Is this an indictment on the state of professional football in the state of Florida?

On ESPN.com, NFL analyst John Clayton promptly ranked the top 10 matchups of the 2005 season. His top three were: 1) Indianapolis at New England on Monday night, Nov. 7 (Peyton Manning can hardly wait); 2) Philadelphia at Atlanta on Monday night, Sept. 12 (Vick versus T.O.!); 3) Minnesota at Baltimore on Christmas night (I can’t quite figure out the rationale for this one. Unless Clayton’s favorite color is purple).

On Friday, Clayton and Mel Kiper Jr. were on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” to help plug the NFL draft -- to be televised live on ESPN April 23 and 24! -- by staging their own first-round mock draft. Their top four picks: Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the 49ers, Utah quarterback Alex Smith to the Dolphins, Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards to the Browns, former USC receiver Mike Williams to the Bears. Lesson for the day? Matt Leinart knew what he was doing.

All of the big networks drafted off the NFL this week. ABC, CBS and Fox trotted out their TV lineups for the upcoming season. ESPN got to promote its draft coverage and its Sunday night NFL schedule. Even left-out-in-the-cold NBC is milking some mileage out of the NFL’s runaway popularity. Guest host for tonight’s edition of “Saturday Night Live”? New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady.

Available for viewing this weekend:

TODAY

* Angels at Oakland Athletics

(FSNW, 1 p.m.)

If the season ended today, both the Angels and the Dodgers would be in the playoffs again, for the second consecutive year. Of course, if the season ended today, the Brewers would also be in the playoffs. There’s a reason they play the other 152 games. As the Yankees, their owner, their fans and the media that cover them on a daily basis need to remind themselves today.

* FC Dallas at Chivas USA

(FSNW, 7 p.m.)

Apparently, this town wasn’t big enough for both Carlos Ruiz and Landon Donovan, so the Galaxy shipped Ruiz to Dallas on the eve of its Donovan acquisition. Ruiz returns to the Home Depot Center as a member of FC Dallas, formerly known as the Dallas Burn, back when MLS teams thought ridiculous XFL-sounding nicknames were a great way to interest serious soccer fans in their league.

Chivas has a record of one loss and one draw -- not counting the lost opportunity when Chivas passed on the chance to pick up Ruiz and really turn up the heat on an already simmering Los Angeles soccer rivalry.

SUNDAY

* “Sundays With Scully”

(FSNW2, 12:30 p.m.)

The debut of a new weekly half-hour show featuring Vin Scully reminiscing about team history, interviewing past and present Dodgers and looking ahead to the game of the day, which, in this case, will be Padres at Dodgers. A nice bonus for any Dodger fan who values the team’s heritage and tradition more than the current ownership. Which, of course, means every Dodger fan.

* Dallas Mavericks at Lakers

(Channel 7, 12:30 p.m.)

Once upon a time, this had the look of a can’t-miss matchup. Now, the Lakers are spending mid-April listening to ESPN NBA analysts Greg Anthony and Tim Legler tout Shaquille O’Neal for league MVP while saying the once-unthinkable about the Lakers and the Clippers. Anthony: “The Clippers have more collective talent.” Legler: “The Lakers could be in last place next year in their division.”