Update: As we all expected, the schedule below has been confirmed as a fake. Twitter follower dldove77 points out that it has the Carolina Panthers opening the season at home, but the team has already said that they will be on the road in week 1 because Bank of America Stadium will be in use by the Democratic National Convention.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. This supposedly leaked 2012 NFL schedule is very likely a fake. The evidence against its authenticity is damning. It was posted on a Blogspot site that has been online for less than a week. The owner of that site has chosen to remain anonymous and has declined to answer Pigskin Buzz’s inquiries about how he (or she) obtained this schedule. On the site, the author gives only a vague description of how s/he managed to find it:

As a lot of you saw, today the NFL released the 2012 Preseason Schedule. However, NFL.com also has the entire regular season schedule has been set for a few weeks. It’s currently at the stage where it’s actually loaded on NFL.com, but not made available to the public. The original plan was to release the NFL Regular Season Schedule the week before the 2012 NFL Draft (Thursday, April 26th). However, I found a way to access this early and wanted to give you all a look at what to expect starting Wednesday, September 5th.

There’s also some evidence that this thing is real, however. Specifically, it would be really hard to fake. I am in charge of making the schedule for my 8-team fantasy football league every year and it’s very hard to get all the games, including a rivalry week and divisional matchups at the end of the season, to line up properly. It would likely have taken a tremendous amount of effort, and access to a custom-coded algorithm, to generate this NFL schedule.

As far as I can tell, it conforms to all the requirements of an official NFL schedule. Teams play their actual 2012 opponents. All the games in week 17 are divisional matchups. The prime time games all seem realistic. If this thing is a fake (and, again, it is probably a fake), it is a very good fake.

And, even if it’s a fake, it’s a lot of fun to look at. So let’s do just that.

And, finally, some notes about the schedule, taken from the site that posted it:

• NFL changed their bye week scheduling from last year. For the 2011 season, bye weeks lasted from Week 5 – Week 11 (excluding week 10). For the 2012 season, bye weeks are from Week 5 – Week 10.

• NFL Thursday Night Football – All 32 teams play one game on a Thursday. NFL Network carries a total of 13 games from Week 2 – Week 16, excluding Week 8 (MLB World Series) and Week 12 (NBC carries the Thanksgiving primetime game). The NFL really tried to limit teams from traveling cross-country for Thursday Night Football and it mostly worked (except for the Buffalo Bills at San Francisco 49ers in Week 10 and the Oakland Raiders at the Cincinnati Bengals Week 11). Also every team playing on Thursday has a Sunday game the prior week (except for the San Francisco 49ers, who have their bye week).

• The New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys will kick off the NFL Season on Wednesday, September 5th on NBC. They also lead the league in appearances in primetime with 5 games each. The Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears, New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, and Denver Broncos all have 4 appearances.

• The NFL International Series continues with the New England Patriots at the St. Louis Rams on October 28th in London,England and the New York Jets at the Buffalo Bills on December 16th in Toronto, Canada.

• Week 1 of the 2012 NFL season is highlighted by NBC Sunday Night Football matchup of the Houston Texans at the Denver Broncos on September 9th. On Monday, September 10th, ESPN carries a double header lineup of the Green Bay Packers at the Detroit Lions at 7:00pm and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Oakland Raiders at 10:15pm.

• The Thanksgiving lineup for the 2012 NFL season features the Houston Texans at the Detroit Lions (12:30pm CBS), the New Orleans Saints at the Dallas Cowboys (4:15pm FOX), and the New England Patriots at the Tennessee Titans (8:20pm NBC).

• The ESPN Monday Night Football Game on December 24th featuring the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Raiders has been moved from 8:30pm to 8:00pm.