NFL Owners Vote to Change Flex Rules Over Thursday Night Football Schedule

The league has used the two-year-old provision once.

The NFL logo sits silently at midfield of Orlando's Camping World Stadium. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

In an ever-so-subtle way, Thursday Night Football will look different next season.

NFL owners have voted to trim the notice needed to flex a Thursday Night Football game from 28 to 21 days, according to a Monday afternoon report from Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.

The two-year-old provision was used once last season. The Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals had been scheduled to play on Dec. 19; that game was moved to Dec. 22 in order to move a game between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers into the mid-week, primetime slot.

The league is permitted to flex up to two games into Thursday Night Football from other slots in between Weeks 13 and 17, which coincidentally fall on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Source: NFL owners passed a resolution allowing the league to flex Sunday games to Thursday night with 21 days’ notice.

Just one game was flexed over the past two seasons via a temporary resolution that allowed it with 28 days’ notice. Today’s vote keeps TNF Flex in the toolbox.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 31, 2025

The still-young provision has few fans among coaches and players, but seemingly serves to appease Amazon—Thursday Night Football's rights holder.

How the league makes use of the provision in 2025 bears watching, as traditional scheduling guardrails seem to be played looser and looser every year.

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