The color-coded NFL schedule is back!

Download the Excel file here: 2014-NFL-SCHEDULE

That Excel file contains full page and wallet-sized copies of the schedule, in both color and black and white. On the wallet-sized copies, the line between weeks 8 and 9 has been enlarged — that is where you want to fold the paper in half to put in your wallet.

iPhone page: http://www.footballperspective.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014-iphone-schedule.png

Go to that page on your phone, then hit your power and home button at the same time to take a photo (or hit the button on the middle of the Safari browser and click ‘save image.’) The schedule has been formatted to fit an iPhone screen, so you can always carry the schedule with you.

Of course, you don’t need an iPhone or Excel to view the NFL schedule:

Some quick schedule thoughts:

The refs will be real this time. In a rematch of the Fail Mary, the Packers will travel to Seattle for the Thursday Night NFL opener.

The double-header on Monday Night? It’s Giants/Lions and Chargers/Cardinals. All four of those teams can be pretty hit or miss, but New York/Detroit seems like the type of game that could end up mattering a lot by week 16. This will be the fifth time in six seasons that San Diego will play in the late game, but Arizona brings some star power to the matchup. Eli Manning, Calvin Johnson, Philip Rivers, Larry Fitzgerald, Patrick Peterson — that’s enough to keep you awake.

Despite having no affiliation to the rivalry, one of the first things I looked for was San Francisco/Seattle. The good: they play in San Francisco in the Thanksgiving night game. Wow! The bad: they play twice in three weeks. The ugly: the players after that second game.

Detroit/Chicago and Dallas/Philadelphia are the other two Thanksgiving games. Some of these games have been duds, but we should get some good quarterback play with Matthew Stafford, Jay Cutler, Tony Romo, and Nick Foles. Yeah, the odds seem pretty low that those will actually be the four quarterbacks starting in that game. Let’s just hope we get Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick at night.

By virtue of three Thanksgiving games and a Thursday night game every week other than week 17, that means there are 18 Thursday night games for 32 teams. As a result, four teams — the Packers, Seahawks, Cowboys, and Bears — play twice on Thursday, with every other team playing once. Dallas and Chicago both play on Thanksgiving and then exactly one week later.

In the event of a Game 7 in the World Series, it will go up against Baltimore/Pittsburgh Panthers/Saints on Thursday Night (apparently, game 7 no longer falls on Sunday night).

The 8-7 Cowboys will head to Washington in week 17.

The Saints, Patriots, and Jaguars are the only teams to open the season with two road games. Has Jacksonville been involved in some sort of -Gate that I’ve forgotten about?

San Diego has four games scheduled at 1:00 EST, including three on the East Coast. Of course, with the new flexing rules — games can be flexed in any week, beginning in week five — all bets are off this far out.

No Toronto game this year for Buffalo, but here’s your international note: Detroit/Atlanta kicks off at 9:30 Eastern.