The NFL made two mistakes with the Packers and Texans, and they will be costly to the league
Coming into the season, it was difficult to imagine two young quarterbacks generating more expectation than Jordan Love and CJ Stroud. Love signed a huge $55 million per season extension with the Green Bay Packers, and Stroud is widely perceived as the next big star after an extremely successful rookie season. So with an interconference […]
Coming into the season, it was difficult to imagine two young quarterbacks generating more expectation than Jordan Love and CJ Stroud. Love signed a huge $55 million per season extension with the Green Bay Packers, and Stroud is widely perceived as the next big star after an extremely successful rookie season.
So with an interconference game between the Green Bay Packers and the Houston Texans on the schedule, everybody could expect a special primetime treatment. Well, that did not happen.
When the league announced the schedule back in May, it was surprising to see that not only was the matchup not a primetime game, it was not even a late afternoon game. We have the risk that the game, being played at noon (CT), will get lost in the middle of several other early afternoon games.
So, well, the NFL had a second chance. Now, the league can flex games starting in week 5. According to the league’s “Flexible Scheduling Procedures”, the NFL can flex two Sunday Night Football games between weeks 5 and 10, and however many it wants after week 11. For Monday Night Football, it starts in week 12, and in week 13 for Thursday Night Football.
The problem is that between weeks 5 and 10, the league has to make a change 12 days in advance of the game.
So the window for any flexing procedure is now closed.
The Thursday Night Football game is fine. It's not a great matchup per se between the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints, but you understand the appeal of a Sean Payton revenge game.
Sunday Night Football is also a good game in terms of marketability, with New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.
There are two Monday Night Football games in week 7. The good one is Baltimore Ravens vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But the second one is hard to justify: Los Angeles Chargers and Arizona Cardinals. Why in the world this Cardinals-Chargers matchup is a primetime game, and a duel between Jordan Love and CJ Stroud is not?
The decision not to flex the Jets-Steelers Sunday Night game out of primetime is understandable, even though it's a shame that such an exciting matchup won't be a national game. But the initial decision to not make it a special event is even more questionable, and the NFL is losing a big opportunity to expose two young talented quarterbacks to a wider audience.
Ultimately, quarterbacks drive the interest from the public, and having players like Love and Stroud on national TV would be huge for the league — not only for a day, but also to build the brands of these players.
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