J.J. Watt reminds fans that players don't view the schedule release the same as fans

As of press time, we are hours away from releasing the Houston Texans schedule. Pieces of it have started to leak but for the most part, we’re not sure what to expect for the upcoming season. Some, like myself, believe that the scheduled release is overrated. The teams the Texans will play have already been announced, and now we just need to know the order of which. Not exactly the most thrilling aspect of the season but hey, it’s a fun day for the fans.

That said, it doesn’t feel like a fun day for the players. For them, this is their work schedule. They will know what their travel plans, day off, and bye-week festivities are for the next few months once the schedule drops. It’s a big deal for them. It's so big that former Houston Texans player J.J. Watt took to Twitter recently to give some insight into what the players for these NFL teams may be thinking about when the schedule releases.

Among the things that Watt points out include the date of their first official game, when the team’s bye week is, if and when they have a dreaded Thursday night game, other disruptive games to their routine, and any potential extreme weather games. 

It’s a bit surprising to see Watt list all of this, as some (by week, Thursday night games) seem obvious, but the idea that a Monday night game could be disruptive to a schedule is something we don’t talk about much. Nor do we think of the players looking down the schedule to see if a game is happening in a warm-weather city in September or a cold-weather, open-air stadium in December. 

These are things we’d all think about to some degree if we played, but it’s not something we often think about players worrying about, so it’s a nice piece of inside information from Watt to the larger fandom.

The Texans will likely have to deal with some, if not all of those issues this season. Now we’re just waiting to see when and where that happens.