West Coast NFL teams have a huge disadvantage when it comes to travel schedules
When it comes to the NFL schedule, teams on the West coast are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to how much time they have to spend in the air traveling from city to city.
During the 2016 season, the Los Angeles Rams will travel nearly 36,000 miles for their eight road games and one "home" game that will played in London. In all, the four teams with the most miles to travel this season, and six of the top eight, come from the NFL's two western divisions. At the other end, the Pittsburgh Steelers have the easiest travel schedule, with a total of just 5,142 miles to travel, or fewer than the miles the Rams will travel to London alone (~5,500 miles).
Of course, teams on the West Coast will always have to travel more since those teams are more spread out. However, it is worse this year for the NFC West. The divisional rotation* this season has the Rams and their divisional rivals playing against the AFC East and NFC South divisions.
*Each division in the NFL rotates opponents each season. All the teams in a division will have eight common, non-division opponents, four from a division within their conference and four from a division in the opposite conference. Those divisions rotate each season.