NFL Schedule: Cowboys Don't 'Deserve' Prime-Time TV, 'Experts' Say
FRISCO - As a kid growing up in the 1970's, and not living in Texas, I used to sarcastically note that CBS'' must stand for "Cowboys Broadcasting System,'' given the fact that "America's Team'' was foisted upon me seemingly every single Sunday.
As an adult (pretty much), and living in Texas while covering the Cowboys as both an occupation and avocation, I have sarcastically note that when it comes to prime-time games, the NFL would - if it could - simply schedule Dallas for every single Sunday and Monday night.
All 17 games. Every week. The Cowboys on TV in the money-making slot,
The rest of the league's teams, even while they would all swim in the shared revenue, would not much like that. So instead we have a spreading-out of the wealth and of the attention.
Which brings us to the Thursday night unveiling of the NFL's entire 2022 regular season schedule, including every prime-time contest - and an NFL.com panel coming up with a list of teams most "deserving" of being showcased in prime-time.
The panel has named five teams.
The Cowboys are not among the five selected by the panel.
The panel is wrong.
Their five choices:
Buffalo Bills
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Kansas City Chiefs
Baltimore Ravens
Las Vegas Raiders
There is nothing inherently "wrong'' with any of these selections. They all feature marquee players on probably-contending teams. They are compelling, each and every one of them.
But the Cowboys feature marquee players - in fact, there are more "popular players'' on this roster than on any NFL team.
The Cowboys are also probable-contenders. They are coming off a 12-5 playoff season and are a decent bet to defend their NFC East crown at least in part due to their "easy'' (via strength-of-schedule'') slate.
And "compelling''? Meaning, a "drawing card''? It was true of Tom Landry and Bob Lilly and Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett and it was true of Jimmy Johnson and Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin and it's true now of Jerry Jones and Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott and Micah Parsons.
The Cowboys define "compelling.''
I'm not sure how else to quantify "deserves.'' The league tries to prop up the headline-grabbing teams by giving them more prime-time opportunities, which means more headlines, boffo ratings and larger revenue.
No team is more "headline-grabbing'' than the Dallas Cowboys. It's been that way for seven decades. I bet, come Thursday night, the NFL's prime-time schedule reflects exactly that.
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