Hope you enjoyed Brett Favre's loss to Carolina Sunday (12/20), and you like next week's (12/27) Cowboys blowout of the Deadskins.
When the 2009 Schedule was placed onto the world wide everything all the way back in April, thirteen days notice is given to change the NBC Sunday Night Football game from Week 11 through 16. So how many games were flexed out by Roger Goodell's lieutenants of television?
One. That was when the Patriots-Dolphins game was swapped out for Favre-Cardinals way back on December 6th. And now, with the push to Miami Gardens underway for Super Bowl XLIV, the NFL and their Sunday TV partners - Fox, CBS and NBC - ought to learn from the mistakes of not swapping out Minnesota-Carolina for a sexier, playoff-inducing game like Bengals-Chargers, or not showing a cringe worthy nation the apocalypse called Dallas at Washington and rather show an unbeaten Colts team against a hanging-by-a-thread-as-far-as-the-postseason-goes Jets team.
Nope, Goodell cares about ratings. We have been lied to again by the National Football League, and wether we like it or not, we will have to live with this for another four years. Take a look at this week's Fox schedule...please. Seattle at Green Bay and Carolina at New York Giants are the only games with playoff implications, while the rest of the slate - Tampa Bay at New Orleans, St. Louis at Arizona and the Gordon Forbes Memorial Negative-Star Pillow Fight of the Week Detroit at San Francisco - have about as many playoff backstories as Amy Winehouse visiting Alcoholics Anonymous.
The reason the "flex" scheduling was introduced was to prop up NBC's Sunday Night game late in the season. It was also inducing to both CBS and Fox to help prop up their ratings for early contests. When it was announced that Cowboys-Redskins would stay where it was, there were screams of disbelief at both 30 Rock in New York and at Fox Sports' offices in LaLaLand, and for different reasons. NBC was shocked that they were keeping that game, and Fox was as angry as a midget wrestler on a Red Bull bender that their schedule was that weak. Meanwhile at Black Rock, CBS was ROTFLTMFAsO that they were now placing Broncos-Eagles in the 4:15 PM ET slot.
As they used to say "It's all about the Benjamins"...and we're the ones getting screwed royally.
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2 things: First of all, the reason the Jets and Colts was not flexed is because it is too lobsided. Remember, these games, outside of the Week 17 game, are flexed 12 days in advance. The NFL and NBC had no way of knowing whether or not the Colts would beat the Jags, and if the Jags won, then they would be stuck with a lousy game with no implications and no rivalry. By keeing Dallas-Washington, they are guaranteeing at least a rivalry game on primetime with playoff implications for one team (Cowboys) plus you get the ratings of one of the NFL's biggest fanbases (as much as I hate to admit it). It's a no-brainer for them.
ReplyDeleteFox, CBS, and NBC - ought to learn from the mistakes of not swapping out Minnesota-Carolina for a sexier, playoff-inducing game like Bengals Chargers
*facepalm*
Bengals-Chargers was CBS' protected game last week! On Week 5, both Fox and CBS choose to protect 1 game respectively each week from being flexed and the game CBS chose was Bengals-Chargers!
*another facepalm*