00:00And it is talking about how the league is really, really looking to dominate Thanksgiving night.
00:05And a major part of that is putting the Chiefs and the Bills game on Thursday night.
00:10You know, the networks, you know, there are certain things that, you know, they get a certain amount of appearances
00:15from teams that they request and things like that.
00:17So they all go into the mix and that's how the computer starts iterating on them.
00:21And then we start to really play around with, you know, we were going huge on Thanksgiving, just like we
00:26did last year.
00:27We pretty quickly got to the games we wanted to see in Detroit, in Dallas, but really played around a
00:33lot with that night game.
00:34And we've never truly gone huge on Thanksgiving night, but it's hard to think we can go any bigger than
00:40Casey at Buffalo that night.
00:42And it'll be really fun and interesting to see where lots of people are still together with their families.
00:47You know, how many people are going to keep watching after the Cowboys game, after you've had your second helping
00:52a turkey.
00:52And, you know, it's an incredible game and you want to keep watching it.
00:55So that is the NFL vice president of broadcast on Sirius XM talking about the league strategy when it comes
01:03to Thanksgiving.
01:03I think that leads to the first point that I want to make today.
01:07And this is something that we have talked about as the week has progressed and as more and more of
01:12these schedule games have leaked.
01:13Well, now it is official.
01:15There are 140 standalone and or primetime games this year in the NFL calendar.
01:22This is not even counting the 325 games, the Nance and the Romo games, which we know that that window,
01:30whether it's at Fox, whether it's at CBS, they get marquee games as well.
01:34I'm talking about Sunday night football, Thursday night football, a little bit of Netflix, a little bit of Amazon prime,
01:41all of those things.
01:41I'm talking about those kinds of standalone primetime premium games over half the season now is a standalone product.
01:51The league is telling you that streaming is going to continue to be a bigger part of the NFL puzzle.
01:58The league is also telling you that they are devaluing Sunday at noon, which has always been a staple as
02:05an NFL fan.
02:06It's not going away completely, but that is now where they put the games that people don't want to see
02:11and people don't care about.
02:12Those are the games now that they are trying to hide for the most part.
02:16They are not putting the good teams consistently and the good matchups not there.
02:21Sure.
02:21You might get a chiefs every once in a while there.
02:23You might get a Cowboys every once in a while, but that is when those teams are playing teams that
02:28you don't want to see the matchup.
02:29That's where we'll put chiefs and jets.
02:32That's where we'll put chiefs and Cardinals and those kinds of matchups.
02:35But when the chiefs play an important divisional game, we are not putting that at noon.
02:40That is just not a part of our television, television model anymore.
02:43So we are seeing the league change and I think how they are delivering and how they are packaging the
02:49product.
02:49But when talking about some of these individual matchups and what really stands out to me,
02:53and we'll take the trip to Denver here coming up in a bit.
02:55I wrote down my five takeaways from looking at the NFL schedule.
02:59Now, we have spent a lot of time here over the last couple of days talking about Patrick Mahomes
03:04and whether or not he is going to play in week one of the NFL season.
03:08It should go without saying the chiefs start their season on Monday night football and Sunday night football.
03:15I expect him to play.
03:17Adam Schefter also believes that Patrick Mahomes will play.
03:20Chiefs have said he is quote unquote way ahead of schedule.
03:24You would never bet against Patrick Mahomes and the NFL certainly hasn't.
03:29The league has scheduled the chiefs for the opening Monday night game of the year.
03:33The league doesn't do that unless they think that there's a realistic chance that Patrick Mahomes is going to be
03:38back.
03:39And I think the feeling is right now, you have to see how the knee is progressing during the course
03:43of the summer.
03:44But the feeling right now within the organization is that he is tracking to be ready for that Monday night
03:50game against Bo Nix,
03:52who's coming off his own surgery on his ankle, and the Denver Broncos in Kansas City.
03:56So we've talked about it a lot this week.
03:59I'm sure we'll continue to talk about it.
04:00To me, the league is sending a very, very big message with having Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs schedule for
04:06week one and week two in a nationally televised window.
04:09If the league was worried, that's where you burn the jets in week one.
04:13That's where you burn the Cardinals for the chiefs in week one.
04:17The league is investing in my homes.
04:18So I am investing in my homes that he is going to play moving aside from Kansas City.
04:23And we'll get back to Kansas City here coming up in a little bit.
04:27I know that the average fan does not care about this and it is not their problem.
04:32But it is comical to me how the NFL in one vein will talk about player safety and change rules
04:40under the guise of player safety.
04:42The officiating is governed with the idea of player safety.
04:46And then you will have the players play on any single day of the week and you will have them
04:52traveling around the country and around the world doing this.
04:57So the only reason why the NFL is not having games on Tuesday this year is because they can't because
05:06it's collectively bargained NFL players.
05:09They get off days to during the season.
05:11They get days where they don't have to come in and watch film and practice and do all those things.
05:16That's Tuesday.
05:18That's collectively bargained by the National Football League.
05:20It's also payday in the National Football League.
05:23Every other day, there's an NFL game this year.
05:27Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, obviously on Sunday.
05:32The league now doesn't just want some of your time.
05:36They want all of your time, which I get it.
05:39When you are in the cash business and business is booming the way that it is with the NFL, you
05:45got to keep up those numbers and we got money to make.
05:47What they've done to San Francisco is criminal.
05:51San Francisco travels 38,000 miles this year.
05:55That's more than double of what the average is.
05:59That's more than double than what the average is.
06:02To give you an idea, the Chiefs, they travel 18,400 miles.
06:07We're talking about an extra 20,000 more miles than just what Kansas City is being asked to travel this
06:15year.
06:15Now, I say this a little bit tongue-in-cheek.
06:18The San Francisco 49ers are going to go through 58 different time zones this year.
06:25I didn't even know there were 58 time zones on the earth until I read this story.
06:30The record last year was Los Angeles.
06:32The Chargers, they traveled across 42 time zones.
06:36The Niners traveled across 58.
06:38The Niners have the Christmas Eve game.
06:41The Niners got the Australia game.
06:44They got two international games this year.
06:46The league did San Francisco no favors, especially for a team and an organization that has dealt with a lot
06:53of injuries over the last couple years.
06:55How they manage that is going to be a big deal.
06:57So, the NFL will usually tell us, based on how they package the schedule, who they think is good and
07:04who they think is going to be bad.
07:06Now, they could end up being wrong.
07:07I mean, that happens all the time in the National Football League.
07:10But at the beginning of the season, they are putting what they believe is the optimum schedule,
07:15and they give themselves room to move things around and opt in and opt out of games.
07:20The league is heavily invested in the Rams being good this year.
07:24The league is heavily invested in the Bears being good.
07:26Those teams already have seven standalone games.
07:30Again, that's not counting the 325 games.
07:32I'm talking seven standalone, primetime, premium football games.
07:36The Rams, they play in almost every premium slot this year.
07:40They play in the Australia game.
07:41They play on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
07:44They play on Christmas Eve.
07:46They play on all of those premium windows.
07:49The league thinks very highly of the Los Angeles Rams.
07:53They also feel that same way about the Chicago Bears.
07:55One of those teams will lay a dud.
07:57That's just how the National Football League works.
07:59I don't know which one.
08:00You don't know which one.
08:01But I will tell you, when the league pushes all their chips in the middle of the table,
08:05usually for a couple of teams, one of those teams ends up falling on their face
08:09because that's the way that the National Football League is set up.
08:12I will give the NFL credit for this.
08:14Now, this just continues to further my, the NFL is WWE, and you got to follow the storylines
08:20more than anything because the storylines will tell you what's going to happen next.
08:25The NFL could have very easily hit the Patriots in week one.
08:28They could have very easily put the Patriots in a time slot where we didn't have to spend
08:34a whole lot of time with them.
08:35But the Patriots have been in the news a lot over the last eight weeks.
08:40Is their coach going to be there?
08:42How is the opposing team's fan base going to react and how they're going to act to Mike
08:47Vrabel?
08:47They put the Patriots week one, game one of the National Football League season.
08:52Now, I didn't ask for a rematch of the Super Bowl.
08:55I don't remember anything from the Super Bowl.
08:58There's going to be some Super Bowls and Super Bowl memories that we will see for the rest
09:03of our lives.
09:04You will never not see the David Tyree helmet catch.
09:06They will show that a million times.
09:07You will never not see the Malcolm Butler play or Marcus Allen's run or certain plays
09:14that just pop up.
09:15I can't tell you one thing that happened from that Super Bowl.
09:18I haven't heard a bad bunny song since that Super Bowl.
09:21I have completely stored that in the depths of my mind that I will never, ever recover that
09:27footage, ever under any circumstance.
09:29They're giving us a Super Bowl rematch with none of us asked for, but it does have the
09:34Vrabel component week one.
09:35I'm kind of interested.
09:37Now, one more thing here before we head to Denver, Colorado.
09:41I'm intrigued by the New York Giants.
09:43I'm not sure how good they're going to be.
09:45I'm not sure if they're going to be bad.
09:47I'm not sure if they're going to disappoint, but I'm intrigued by them.
09:52They got a new head coach, a coach who is a proven winner.
09:55I like their quarterback.
09:57Let's see if he can take a step forward this year.
09:59I love Cam Scadaboo.
10:01I wanted him in Kansas City.
10:02He's coming back from an injury.
10:04Malik Nabors is a legitimate number one wide receiver.
10:07He's coming back.
10:08They got a lot of new faces, a lot of changes with the New York Giants.
10:11I'm interested.
10:13Now, I hate the fact that we just continue to get Cowboys and Giants every single year
10:18to kick off the season, but you know what?
10:21I am intrigued by the Giants, so I'll keep an open mind.
10:23I will.
10:24I'll keep an open mind about Cowboys and Giants, even though I am tired of watching those two
10:28teams play.
10:29But Cowboys and Giants, that's the Sunday night football game.
10:33Vrabel, the Patriots, and the Seahawks, that's the first game of the NFL season.
10:38The Rams and the Niners are playing each other in Australia to kick off the season.
10:43Monday night football, there's a lot heavily invested in the Kansas City Chiefs early on in
10:48the season.
10:49We now have the full picture of the NFL schedule.
10:52I wanted to give you guys some of my thoughts for week one.
10:54I want to give you guys some of my thoughts for the NFL schedule.
10:54I want to give you guys some of my thoughts for the NFL schedule.
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