The NFL will announce the 2015 schedule at some point this week, setting travel calendars for many of the sport’s fans this fall and winter. Personally, I love the announcement as much as any day in the off-season. It’s like building a brilliant travel itinerary. Sure, the fun is actually executing that itinerary but creating the itinerary itself makes the trip real. Seeing the Bears 16 games laid out makes the 2015 season suddenly real.

Here are my hopes…

HOPE #1 – Return the Bears to Sunday at Noon

I know the Bears are a huge television draw and the NFL has more prime time slots than Law & Order in the 90s. But two years straight the Bears have gone almost a month late in the season without playing on Sunday afternoon.

When the Bears don’t play on Sundays, Sundays are worthless to me. Sure you get the chance to watch a few other clubs closely but I do that on Mondays and Tuesdays anyway. Sundays are about routine. Sundays are about ritual. Some folks like to go to church. I like to go to Josie Woods and pray the Bears don’t embarrass themselves.

HOPE #2 – Send the Bears to San Diego in December

You think a lot of Bears fans show up to Nashville and Dallas and Charlotte? Try scheduling the Bears in paradise once the winter has rolled into Chicago. I’ll have my hotel room booked an hour after the schedule is released.

Side note: the Chargers should have petitioned the NFL for this. They already are amongst the league’s worst fans and with word leaking the team has its eyes on LA, it isn’t going to get better any time soon.

HOPE #3 – Send Peyton Manning to Chicago Late in Year

Throw the Bears a bone. Manning trying to cut the wind after a long season might be the only way a transitional defense can neutralize one of the league’s best offenses. With the Bears having a difficult road schedule in 2015, they could use a few breaks when it comes to home scheduling.

BONUS HOPES! Non-Bears…

• Can’t imagine the league not sending Rex Ryan and the Bills to New Jersey to play the Jets as their Monday Night Football opener. Burying this game in a Sunday slate would be a terrible error.
• Which Pennsylvania team – Philly or Pittsburgh – is sent to Foxboro to open the season? I’m leaning towards the Eagles.
• My Thanksgiving schedule? Seattle at Dallas on FOX, Denver at Detroit on CBS, New England at New York Giants in primetime.