My Two Cents: Thursday TV Flex Probably Won't Pass, Which is a Good Thing
PHOENIX, Ariz. — One of items on the agenda this week at the NFL owners meetings is a proposal to add flex scheduling to the Thursday night schedule as well.
It's a really bad idea, for a lot of reasons. There seems to be enough opposition for it not to pass, even though NFL commissioner Roger Goodell really wants it.
And wants it bad.
There's a good reason for that, of course, because what Goodell does — aside from making his 32 bosses a lot of money — is going to bat for the NFL's big sponsors, too. That Amazon money means a lot, as does the entire future of streaming deals down the road. So making Amazon's product more valuable on Thursday is a worthwhile goal.
But the idea of moving games up three days from Sunday to Thursday seems crazy. I'm already not a fan of the short work weeks — more on that in a minute — but to move games on short notice would be a nightmare for game-planning coaches and banged-up players as well. Going from 1 p.m. Sunday to Sunday night isn't a big problem, but moving a game three days? Come on.
And don't get me started on how this screws the ticket-buying fans, who often get overlooked in the rush for better TV ratings. There are many families who save up to go to one game a year. And you want to crush their travel plans by moving a game up three days? Work schedules and plane flights or long drives would all be disrupted.
The awful games on Thursday are often the NFL's fault to begin with, because they're the ones scheduling them in the first place. When they made the push to get everyone on national TV at least once, the league's worst franchises usually filled those Thursday spots. The NFL could fix that.
Here are some easy options:
- 1. PRIORITIZE THURSDAY MORE: I know the same teams aren't always good two years in a row, but let's start with this. Put all eight division champions from last year in a Thursday game the first eight weeks. Fans of playoff teams are usually still all in. And your high-profile teams like the Cowboys or Chiefs or, now, the Eagles can play a second Thursday game throughout the year. Just be better in advance, and this wouldn't be such a problem
- 2. ADDING BYE WEEK WOULD BE HUGE: I've made this argument forever when it comes to short work weeks. Look, the preseason doesn't mean anything. They took a week away to add the 17th game, so why not take another one away to add a second bye week? Play 17 games over 19 weeks — or 18 over 20 when the next game expansion occurs. That way you can schedule Thursday games with teams who have had 10 days off, and then get another 10 before the next game. Every NFL player I've asked about this loves the idea. To build in that extra time to heal the body is a great idea. It also opens up this option:
- 3. FLEX AWAY FROM THURSDAY: If you had two bye weeks, you could do three Monday night doubleheaders to start the season and add some primetime, and give two teams Week 3 off for their first bye. Let them play on Thursday night, well rested and well prepared — and don't start the Thursday night games until then, outside of the season opener, of course. And then, if you want to flex to the best game possible on Thursday, schedule two games for Thursday later in the season, and then move the worst one BACK to Sunday instead of forward. If you did it two weeks in advance, it might work better for the fans, because they at least know it's an option all along.
As I mentioned in my first point, the NFL can eliminate a lot this problem themselves simply by scheduling better on Thursday nights. There's not a lot of national appeal for Texans-Cardinals or Panthers-Browns. So, NFL, just be better.
So I'll look forward to seeing the second bye on the agenda one of these days. It doesn't impact TV revenue one bit because you still have 13 or 14 games to choose from each week. It would work.
But moving Sunday games to Thursday on short notice? Let's hope that one bites the dust today.
