The Minnesota Vikings Will Travel 12,460 Miles This Season

One thing I never think about is how much time a sports team spends either on the road or in the air.  With each team in the NFL playing eight home games and eight road games, you don’t think that a team would accumulate a ton of miles per season.

To put things in perspective, here are the Minnesota Vikings regular season road games this year:

Nov 17, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) leads teammates out of the tunnel during pre game warm ups prior to the game against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

St. Louis

New Orleans

Green Bay

Buffalo

Tampa Bay

Chicago

Detroit

Miami

With the Vikings not making a single west coast trip this year, Minnesota is actually one of the teams that will accumulate the fewest number of travel miles.  According to CBS Sports, the Minnesota Vikings will travel a total of 12, 460 miles to and from those games.  That is the 11th fewest in the league.

The team that will travel the farthest is the Oakland Raiders.  Since one of their home games is in England this year, they will put on 36,106 miles during the 2014 season.  That is like traveling the United States from coast to coast 15 times.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have the shortest travel distance this year.  With a distance of 5,896 miles, it is like going across the United States two and a half times.

Sometimes I forget how much time is spent by these players, coaches and personnel away from their families and homes.  I wonder what these guys do to occupy each other on long team trips.  I bet some pretty crazy shenanigans go down on the plane and bus.  Sadly, we as fans won’t get to hear too many of those stories.