- 7 hours ago
The NFL is stacking prime-time schedules with the same franchises week after week. Is the league quietly testing the waters to take over every single night of our lives?
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00:00But Mike Florio took it a step further and was wondering where the NFL might add even more
00:06primetime games. For example, the Bears just played on Thursday Night Football and their
00:12next two games are going to be nationally televised on ESPN and NBC. So that's three
00:16straight primetime games this season. Here's Mike Florio. It's now noticeable. Here's my point.
00:23Okay. The Bears tonight are embarking on their first of three straight primetime games.
00:29Right. We're going to see them tonight against the Patriots, the following Monday night at
00:35Seattle, and then the following Sunday night on NBC and Peacock against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
00:41We are in the midst of three straight Cowboys games in primetime. We have had three straight
00:47Falcons games in primetime. The Eagles are having two straight in primetime coming up Monday and
00:54Sunday. And here's my hypothesis. Because look, it may just be random. It may just be. But when
01:03that many teams are getting three in a row in primetime, I wonder if they are experimenting
01:10with having the same team in primetime for multiple weeks for if and when they ever fully embrace
01:20Tuesday and Wednesday night. Because if you do that, the only way to make the schedule work is
01:26to have a team play Thursday one week, Wednesday the next week, Tuesday the next week. You're right.
01:32To give them maximum time between games, you're going to have to do this surgery to the schedule
01:39that has the same teams popping up again once you have teams playing in the middle of the
01:45week. And then maybe you cycle them until Monday. And then they go back to Sunday.
01:49Right.
01:49So I just feel like they want to see. And this is just me pulling it out of thin air
01:54and or
01:55my butt. But I don't remember a time where it's like, hey, this is interesting. We got
02:01the Falcons three straight weeks in primetime. Well, now we got the Cowboys three straight
02:04weeks. Well, now we got the Bears three straight weeks. I don't feel like that's an accident.
02:10Is that what we've actually had? We've had the same teams. The Falcons are featured three
02:15straight in three straight primetime games. The Cowboys or the Eagles, I think, are going
02:20to be in two, like you said. He's probably on to something. Sounds like he's on to something.
02:24The Seahawks are in the midst of it, too. Yeah. And the Bears. Bears. Bears. Then they play
02:27the Bears on Monday night. So do we think they're going to expand to Tuesday night and Wednesday
02:32night? I guess it would be possible. One thing I'd say is there used to be an argument
02:36that the Thursday night games always sucked, right? Because teams didn't have any time
02:40to prepare. I think you can make an argument at least last week. The best game of the week
02:44was the Thursday night game, which was the Patriots Bears game. That was a fun, fun game
02:49to watch. It came down to the end with good football, really good quarterback play from
02:53both Caleb Williams and Drake May. May did have the one interception, but that was actually
02:58really good football on Thursday night. I'm personally okay with them not mucking up the
03:05middle of the week with NFL football. Now, I don't want to sound like the rooster who
03:09detests anything out of the ordinary when it comes to schedules, but if you start putting
03:15it on Tuesdays and Wednesday nights, it's basically an every night of the week type
03:19deal. It's too much. It loses some of its appeal to me. It loses its... I would still
03:24watch. Yeah, that's the thing. I would still watch. It's not as special. It loses a little
03:28bit of its appeal, but you're still going to watch. Much like, all right, Thanksgiving.
03:33It used to be two games. Tradition! Two games. Then they added the third game, and hook, line,
03:38sinker, oh. Then they added Black Friday game. Yep. Do you skip that one? Because tradition?
03:44No, you end up consuming it all. And so the NFL is looking at a situation where, hey, whenever
03:49we add, people still consume. Sure. People still are going to watch the product. So if they do a way
03:57where it is not less safe for the players, and they stagger the games, and that was kind
04:03of blowing my mind when he was saying there, but they stagger the games so that you're not
04:07having, like, two days rest. I mean, obviously, you couldn't play on a Sunday and then play
04:11on Tuesday. I mean, they're already kind of encroaching on it because now you have the
04:14Thanksgiving Eve game. Like, I think it started, that started last year or the year before.
04:19I mean, this year you've got Green Bay at the Rams the night before Thanksgiving. Right.
04:24And then you have your three-day, your three-game Thanksgiving slate.
04:27And still the Black Friday game?
04:30I'm pretty, I'm 99% sure, yes. I'll double-check that, but I'm...
04:33So we're going to have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Thanksgiving week.
04:38Of Thanksgiving week, I skipped now to, this is Christmas week. There's going to be a
04:43Christmas Eve game, Thursday. Then you've got three games on Christmas, Friday.
04:49So that week, you've got Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday games.
04:541-800-636-106-7. Do you think it would be too much to add games on Tuesday and
05:00Wednesday? Or would you love it? I mean, I think I probably would watch it because
05:04on a Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm going to be watching usually the locals, the
05:09Wizards, and the Caps on Monumental Sports. But if there's an NFL game, it's going to be
05:13hard not to watch it. Yeah, I'll be honest. The night before Thanksgiving, when Green Bay
05:18is taking on the Rams, I'll be watching it. Of course you will. I'll be home, hanging out
05:23with my family, getting ready for Thanksgiving the next day. But the TV will be on, and the
05:28NFL game will be on the TV, at least one of the TVs. That's a lock. I mean, I just
05:34think
05:34as long as the NFL's on, people are going to watch it. People watch the Pro Bowl, you
05:38know, when it was on. So they'll watch it, and they're obviously gearing up for
05:43something, right? The way they're ramping this up. I mean, this is the most
05:46international games we've ever had, right? Yeah, not even close. Nine this year. I never
05:50thought that they'd play on a Tuesday. Like, that's never crossed my mind. You've got
05:54Monday Night Football. But it wouldn't surprise me if it gets expanded into
05:58Tuesdays, and they're just on non-traditional nights of the week. Just because the product
06:04just grabs so many eyeballs, and the ratings are so high. They just want to own
06:08every day. They want to own your life. When you look at, like, the top
06:11100 TV programs every week or month, like, 95 out of the 100 are NFL games. So, of
06:20course, the networks and the streamers, they want as much inventory as they can
06:24get. But, like, you're not going to be, like, some principled guy that goes, I love
06:29the NFL, but I draw the line on Tuesdays. I'm out on Tuesdays. I said, I would, well, if
06:33you put an NFL game on a Tuesday night, you have a customer right here.
06:38Yeah. So, in 2024, out of the top 100 rated TV shows, 72 were NFL games. Yeah. In
06:462025, 83. Yeah. I'm guessing the number in 2026 is higher. That's crazy. To me, it's
06:56just, yeah, it makes sense. I mean, Mike is often out there on a limb. I don't
07:02want to go with it, but this makes sense. They're targeting it. James at Fairfax.
07:07James, what's up? You're all with the junkies. Are you there, bud? Hey, James.
07:15Yeah, just, I think it's a foregone conclusion. With them pushing the 18 games,
07:20probably next to CBA, you're going to probably see a second bye week. And that's
07:24the kind of thing that would open up a lot of finessing with that kind of thing, where
07:27it's not worrying about all that rest and not rest. Because if you have that second
07:31bye week, you can work that in the middle of the schedule.
07:34Do you like the expanded international schedule to date?
07:39Do I like it? Not really, but I mean, we're here. We're in consumerism market, and they
07:46want to shove it down our throats, and so the society keeps going.
07:51Right. Honestly, it doesn't affect me. It doesn't bother me at all. I kind of like
07:54having a game available in the morning sometimes, but if you told me, this last game was in Paris,
08:02right? Yeah.
08:02It played in France.
08:04Thanks, James.
08:05You could have told me that game was in Germany, in Denmark, or a home game for the team,
08:11a legit home game, and it wouldn't have mattered.
08:13Sure. But if a game's on, you're probably going to watch it.
08:16Right.
08:17But it does make it more difficult for your team.
08:20Like, you know, you're not particularly a fan of the team. I guess you're kind of a
08:25fan of the skins. You're not particularly a fan.
08:28But it affects both teams, right?
08:30Yeah.
08:30I think the teams that really have the bad beat are the West Coast teams that got to
08:33go all the way to Germany, for example.
08:36Yeah, and it's not slowing down. I mean, Goodell came out, I think it was last week, and said,
08:40yeah, we're thinking of putting an international game in Tokyo in the years, you know, in the
08:45next few years.
08:46But the teams have to figure it out. That's why it was such a big topic when the Rams had
08:50a different approach than the 49ers.
08:52To go to Australia.
08:53Where the Rams just decided, hey, we're just going to fly in and fly right out.
08:56Yep.
08:57And the 49ers were there for a week.
08:59Mm-hmm.
08:59You know, the NFL gives them an opportunity to have extra days, and I think what Florio
09:04was trying to say is, there's a way where you could mess around with the schedule that
09:09teams aren't going to have too short of a rest period if they end up playing on a Tuesday
09:14or on a Wednesday.
09:15Right.
09:15To make it more palatable, though, it's just, the only way to do it involves expansion.
09:20I actually, the one thing that I do kind of like is the extension of the season into February.
09:25Like, this year, the Super Bowl is going to be played on Valentine's Day, February 14th.
09:29I wouldn't hate it if you went all the way to the end of February.
09:33Then you got March Madness coming in, and then baseball starts, and then it kind of goes.
09:37But I don't mind that at all.
09:42You don't feel like a sloth, though, on Sundays when you're just a total slave to the NFL?
09:48Yes.
09:49I mean, after the 4 o'clock games, I started watching the three games that were on whenever
09:55they start, 425, and at 5 o'clock, I decided I needed to go outside, and I mowed the lawn
10:00and dealt with the leaves.
10:01You've got to touch some grass at some point.
10:03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:03A little bunch.
10:04But once I was done and put away all the leaves and all that crap, and I was back in,
10:08right
10:09back in watching the NFL, and then I watched, I stayed up and watched the whole game last
10:13night.
10:13Well, I know.
10:14You're crazy.
10:14It was a 20-3 game.
10:16Well, like, for example, I had watched so much football that I didn't even, plus I wanted
10:22to go to bed and not feeling great, but if I hadn't watched the morning game, I'd be more
10:25likely to want to watch the nighttime game.
10:27Is it better for them to have a morning game?
10:30Is the morning game drawing as many viewers as the nighttime game?
10:33No.
10:33Oh, I don't think there's any way.
10:34Yeah, right?
10:35Yeah.
10:35A non-prime time game?
10:37I'm sure the numbers are still impressive.
10:38By 8 o'clock, I'm like, I'm out.
10:40Right.
10:40It's too much.
10:41Watched too much football today.
10:42Yeah, but you can just kind of check in, like, if it's not your team, right?
10:47And you had, what, Steelers against the Saints?
10:49It was kind of a dud of a game anyway, right?
10:52It wasn't a super exciting game, even though it ended up being close.
10:55I had it on.
10:57You know, you kind of check in with it, and then it kind of gets you ramped up for the
11:011 o'clock.
11:031 o'clock, I was locked in on the Giants game.
11:05So you were locked in there.
11:06See, I had red zone on.
11:07Yeah.
11:08And that kind of bounces around.
11:11And then every once in a while, I'll flip to, like, a game that, if you just want to
11:15focus on a game, you can do that.
11:19But I don't know if this, like, this is a Florio theory.
11:23I don't know if this is something that's going to happen.
11:26I could see maybe one of the nights.
11:27Do you think both nights?
11:29Legitimately, the NFL would be on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
11:33I mean, they've added a Friday, but that's not a regular thing.
11:36I don't think you would see that immediately, but it would be like, oh, we're rolling out
11:40Tuesday night football.
11:41And then two or three years later, it's, oh, we've got Wednesday night football now on
11:45tap.
11:45I mean, they're not going to ever just say, yeah, we're going to leave this one.
11:50It's too much.
11:51We're going to leave it sacred.
11:52We're going to give people a day off.
11:53They don't care about that.
11:54They want to own every day if they can.
11:56Yeah, yeah.
11:56It doesn't bother me.
11:57I mean, they do it in college football, right?
11:59College football has games on wacky nights like Tuesday night.
12:02Yep.
12:04Now, everybody of any sort of business sense that's in there to make money is going to
12:09want to own every day if possible.
12:12I mean, it's already on so many platforms now.
12:16I forget.
12:18I mean, I find it because my TV will guide me there with AI.
12:23It'll say, boom, it's on Amazon or whatever.
12:26But we got games on Amazon and Netflix now.
12:29Correct.
12:30It's not my initial thing is not to go to Amazon or Netflix for the NFL, but I find
12:35it.
12:36I find it and I consume it.
12:37Well, you know now, you've probably gotten into the rhythm that Thursday night's on Amazon.
12:41I've gotten into that.
12:43If there's a Thursday night game, I used to fumble around like, where is this game?
12:47Now, it's in my brain now.
12:49I've gotten into that rhythm, but the Netflix one throws me off.
12:52Netflix Christmas.
12:52I don't think you can compare NFL on Tuesdays to what college football does.
12:57Those games are minor league games, basically.
13:00That's called Maction.
13:01Those are teams that nobody in the country would ever see or heard of if they weren't
13:05playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
13:07It's their gimmick.
13:08It's their gimmick.
13:11Pittsburgh Steelers don't need to play on a Tuesday.
13:14Are you against it?
13:15I'm against it.
13:16I'm putting my foot down.
13:17Now, look, I'm an idiot and a hypocrite.
13:20I'll watch.
13:21Yeah, of course.
13:22But I'm just a lonely guy.
13:23I got nothing going on in my life.
13:25Do you like the international games like all day Sunday?
13:28Actually, you know what?
13:29I really don't watch them.
13:30You don't?
13:31Maybe that's what it is.
13:32Maybe that's my answer.
13:34I don't really watch.
13:35I watched zero plays yesterday.
13:36Sunday mornings are for church, not football.
13:39Oh, Sunday mornings are for football.
13:42In my house, they're for football.
13:44It's Cakes is the Church of Fantasy football.
13:46It's wake up, brew a pot of coffee, do breakfast, walk winning, settle in for the 930K.
13:53For a lot of people, you're right.
13:56I know.
13:56Come on.
13:57Come on, Cakes.
13:58Hey, you have your traditions.
14:00I have mine.
14:03Yeah.
14:04But you watched at 1 o'clock.
14:06Oh, of course.
14:07Of course.
14:07Yeah.
14:09And of course you watched.
14:10It's tough to set the fantasy lineup.
14:12This is my church right here.
14:14NFL cake off at 930.
14:17From France.
14:18Yeah.
14:19All right, let's go.
14:19I'm playing the long game, Cakes.
14:21I understand.
14:21But if the Seahawks played in the morning, they're not church bells.
14:27That music's so much better.
14:31Yeah, you tell me which is better, Brad.
14:34The first one might be better for your long-term salvation.
14:38But at least for the short term, I'm going with this one.
14:42I mean, it just makes up.
14:45That's a religious song right there.
14:50When the Commanders played at 930, I went at 8 a.m.
14:55You did?
14:56Look at you, baby.
14:57Got to go.
14:58Got it in.
14:58Got to get it in.
14:598 o'clock mass is usually a faster mass, too.
15:01Very impressive.
15:01Not fast.
15:03They don't mess around.
15:04I used to go to 8 o'clock back in the day.
15:05I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used
15:05to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go
15:05to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930,
15:05I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used
15:05to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go
15:05to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930,
15:05I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used
15:05to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go to 930, I used to go
15:05to 930, I used to go to