NFL Says Controversial Patriots Schedule Decision Is ‘Good’ For Fans originally appeared on NESN.
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The NFL has made it its mission to dominate every day of the week. Sundays are for football. Always have been, always will be. Monday night? Of course, we are watching Monday Night Football; that’s not even a discussion.
And while we are at it, Thursday Night Football is a good appetizer to get us to the Sunday slate, regardless of how much every team hates it.
I love football more than most. If I were forced to pick between football and family, I’d have to have a lot of difficult conversations. But even I rolled my eyes when I saw the New England Patriots were slated to kick off the NFL season with a Super Bowl LX rematch against the Seattle Seahawks on a… Wednesday night?
The NFL switched to a Thursday night and Friday night opening-week celebration a few years back. While I never loved the concept, it made sense to kick off the weekend.
This year, they scrapped the Friday game in order to do the first-ever Wednesday night opener.
Selfishly, I’m all for the Patriots getting an extra day of rest before hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2. But at what point is the NFL over-saturating its market?
The NFL is great because you can count on its prime-time games to deliver. But if there’s a game on every day, the NFL loses some of its luster.
I can’t be the only one who believes that the Black Friday games and Saturday slates after the college football season ends lack juice. There is nothing that excites me about a 3:30 PM Friday afternoon game on Netflix.
Still, the NFL believes this is what the fans want. And who am I to argue with the numbers?
Stephen Holder of ESPN spoke to several members of the NFL’s broadcasting department.
“Giving more football to NFL fans is only a good thing,” NFL executive vice president of media distribution Hans Schroeder said. “Every one of our [broadcast] partners was up.”
Holder spoke to Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcasting planning, about the completely packed Christmas slate this year.
“We’re probably stretched about as thinly as we can go that week,” said North. “… We’re making a conscious decision to stay strong, be big in those windows. Fans vote with their remotes. They’ve shown us an interest in watching NFL games on Christmas.”
The Patriots are slated to play the New York Jets on Christmas weekend as one of only six Sunday afternoon kickoffs.
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