The NFL’s popularity is not up for debate, but commissioner Roger Goodell is always looking for ways to get more eyeballs on games.
During his annual “state of the NFL” speech on Wednesday, Goodell revealed one way in which he hopes to do so.
Goodell noted that during the 2023 season, the NFL will be able to “flex” games to Monday Night Football. That means the slate of Monday night games won’t be fixed prior to the season — instead, the league can move matchups into the Monday window 12 days in advance. Previously, “flexing” was only done for Sunday Night Football.
The same could be coming for Thursday Night Football, although not this season. Goodell revealed that he would like the league to be able to flex matchups to Thursday nights at some point, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
“The 2023 season will be the first year of flex scheduling for Monday Night Football, and Roger Goodell says it wouldn’t surprise him if at some point Thursday games can be flexed, too,” Pelissero tweeted. “‘Not today but it’ll certainly be something that’s on our horizon.'”
One of the chief complaints from NFL fans this season was about lackluster matchups in primetime — particularly on Thursday nights. Amazon Prime, which broadcast Thursday Night Football for the first time this season, even had to pay back some advertisers after viewership numbers didn’t hit their projected marks.
Allowing the league the power to pick which games will air in primetime two weeks in advance instead of months ahead of time would obviously help solve that problem. However, the issue is that teams would not get much heads up before finding out that they’re to play a game on short rest.
It’s possible that the league will decide to treat Thursday Night Football differently, flexing matchups three or four weeks in advance instead of two. Clearly, the league is still working to figure out the ideal system.
But given that Goodell floated the idea publicly, expect it to become a reality within the next few years.
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Publish Date:2023-02-09 07:04:13
