If you live on the east coast of the United States and are a fan of the Texans or the Seahawks, the NFL hates you.
How else do you explain not only running two games on Monday night, but starting the second game at 10 p.m. EDT?
Madness would be one possible answer. But I’m thinking that it’s just plain greed.
The marque matchup on Monday night kicked off at a more reasonable 7 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. for those of us here in the Central time zone.
Two of the top teams in the NFC, Detroit and Tampa Bay, wrapped up play just about the time the Seahawks-Texans game was kicking off.
If you are a normal human being, watching the second game meant a 1 a.m. bedtime. Unless you’re one of those people, you didn’t get a good night’s sleep.
You probably looked like Oscar The Grouch when you walked into work too.
And there’s your obligatory PBS programming reference for the season.
It Makes No Sense
A little more than 55 years ago, the NFL played its first ever game on Monday Night. September 21, 1970, to be exact, when the Cleveland Browns beat the visiting New York Jets, 31-21.
Check out the video in the link above at about the 1:50 mark as Namath throws a touchdown pass to George Sauer.
Then notice all the fans just casually sitting or lying on the grass on the hill a few yards beyond the back of the endzone at Municipal Stadium. I miss those stadiums.
Back then, the first year of the merger, CBS (NFC) and NBC (AFC) divvied up the Sunday game broadcasts, leaving ABC with the new concept of a single game on Monday.
It was an immediate success for ABC and the NFL.
It quickly became iconic too. But the NFL couldn’t leave well enough alone.
Broadcast Overkill
Eventually, the NFL decided a Sunday night game would just be the bee’s knees. Before long, the two Thanksgiving Day games in Detroit and Dallas were also deemed not enough.
A third game on Thursday night was added.
Then one game every Thursday night was mandated.
Now we have a Friday afternoon game the day after Thanksgiving, in addition to the three on Turkey Day, to contend with.
The NFL has in recent years scheduled games on Saturdays late in the year as well. That would leave Tuesday and Wednesday as the only NFL-free days of the week.
Madness.
Unhealthy Growth
The players have been complaining about the weekly Thursday games for some time. One week out of the year for four teams was fine.
But not every week.
Maybe that’s why we’re seeing an increase in player injuries as players try to recover in a short week?
Add in the travel to the International games, and it seems the NFL has one goal in mind. Chase down every penny they can squeeze out of its fanbase.
That’s eventually a model for growing your sport out of business via oversaturation.
A Possible Solution
Sometimes, the old way are the best ways.
Maybe it’s time for the NFL to look back at how it used to be done. After all, that is the foundation today’s NFL was built on.
Go back to every game played on Sunday afternoons, with the lone Monday Night game each week.
And the lone exception being the two Turkey Day games in Dallas and Detroit.
The NFL will be just as popular. And maybe half the country won’t be mistaken for zombies at work on Tuesday mornings, too.
Well there’s some of us that live on the East Coast that like it the way it is because they have a better chance of seeing their team play every week!! Like me, I live in the eastern side, but my team is the Dallas Cowboys, so it’s hard to see them play on TV as it is, but if they move every game to Sunday, then there’s no way I’ll be able to see many of their games, if any!! So I think it’s better to keep it the way it is!! The only changes I would make is taking the prime games, and putting them back on TV, and stop all the international games!! It don’t hurt to have one or 2 a season, but they have way too many now!! But that’s the only changes I would make!!
They is no question the NFL is greedy, starting with their commissioner making a bazillion dollars a year. Many players are also uber greedy..
Meanwhile some games are on Amazon Prime, which is a pay channel.. Goodell is shaking down every possible penny out of the fans. The international games seem like the minor leagues. The rating must be low. Can’t blame the players for not wanting games on almost every day of the week.
I commented before about this and more games will probably be on pay channels moving forward. The goose may be cooked if this keeps up. I personally know a ton of people who stopped watching after the kneeling BS.
I agree with some of your points, but not all. The Monday doubleheader is a bad idea. I don’t have a problem with 3 games on Thanksgiving or Friday/Saturday games later in the season. The question of weekly Thursday night games is one I go back and forth on. I think weekly Friday night games are a better idea. It doesn’t shorten the week quite as much and with bar business declining in the US, it could help that industry at a time when it needs it.
My biggest issue with the NFL is this never-ending string of international games which do nothing good for the US market, besides screw it over, and simply shifts revenue rather than increasing it.
from the UK, been following the Cowboys since ’85 and I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, our football (“soccer”) has gone the same way. It used to be that everyone played on a Saturday at the same time (maybe 10-11 games) with maybe a big game on Sunday. But with all the additional days and European games now, you can sometimes only end up with 3 games on the Saturday.
It’s a bit like watching Redzone – there’s a real buzz as all the games are being played simultaneously. And even if you are watching your team, you have one eye on the others in anticipation of something happening. It’s exciting!
And then you get to the late games and it all goes a bit flat. Sometimes you can have weeks with just 2 late games. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old man, but for me….
THE ROMANCE OF GAMEDAY IS DEAD.
Re: international games – I couldn’t care for them. Unless it was Dallas, then I just don’t see the point in what is an awkward journey to see a team I don’t care for. The Jags couldn’t get a fan base big enough because people already had a team. So you end up with mixed support and no real hunger for routing for a team. 1 game in London is one thing, but 3 is just diluting the occasion.
And one final point which I know will never ever change – half time Superbowl show…. MADNESS!!!!
Players in their most important game of the year, expected to sit around for 30min whilst that nonsense goes on.
15min, back out and get on with the game!
This is sport. Or at least it used to be