Dec 2008. I don't think they hire that far in advance.
That makes sense, though they are always thinking about next year with that franchise I bet. I am sure you will be doing all sorts of logos and other branding (ESPN especially) for the game. Maybe they will have you mess with the team mascots. The NCAA game has had a thing where you could play as an entire team comprised of each team's mascots, they could implement that in the NFL (but not all teams have actual mascots though).
I always get confused when someone says "next" something for some reason. I think they mean the next year/week/month and not the current. For example, someone saying they have a doctor's appointment next November (11/2008) I would think they mean 11/2009 instead, and they would just say they have a appointment in November (this year). Same with someone saying "See you next Friday" (when it is Monday and they are talking about the Friday 4 days away), I always think they are saying the next week.
Anyways, Congratulations on making the big bucks.