Turf Show Times
Somebody calls the Buccaneers because NFL piracy about to go wild this weekend.
There’s nothing that the NFL can do about the fact that the biggest game of the week, Seattle Seahawks (7-2) at Los Angeles Rams (7-2), is just another ho-hum west coast afternoon game on FOX that won’t be broadcast in most places of the country that aren’t Southern California, the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, and small-ish pockets of the country on the east coast.
Because of the NFL’s flex scheduling rules, which dictate two major problems above all others keeping Rams-Seahawks from being flexed, you’re going to see the Raiders play the Cowboys on Monday Night Football instead.
That’s stupid.
The two biggest problems facing the NFL’s inability to replace or supplement Monday Night Football with a great game are:
1) MNF flex scheduling doesn’t start until Week 12. This is Week 11.
2) The Seahawks and Rams are already scheduled to play on Thursday Night Football later in the year and division rivals aren’t supposed to be in primetime twice in the same season.
Maybe Rule #2 wouldn’t apply if it was Week 18 for the division title, but right now the NFL doesn’t want to do it. Which means that at a time when the league’s talent looks diluted and more than half of the NFL is starting backup-quality quarterbacks, a game featuring Matthew Stafford against Sam Darnold throwing to Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba will be buried and a game featuring 2-win Geno Smith vs. 3-win Dak Prescott will be in the coveted Monday Night spot.
Are the networks conspiring with the NFL to get people to cut their cords even faster than they already are?
Or is this just about forcing the Cowboys on us?
It makes sense that the NFL doesn’t want to flex out Lions-Eagles on Sunday Night Football, but Raiders-Cowboys is a travesty of primetime television. A lot of teams look really, really bad right now, including those two, but the Rams and Seahawks look really, really good.
Yet instead of giving fans what they want, they’re giving fans what Jerry Jones needs.
Will the NFL address this mistake in the future? Only if you don’t tune in.
