NFL Makes Ridiculous Week 13 Schedule Announcement That Will Piss Every Fan Off
This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.
The NFL has made a head-scratching decision for ‘Sunday Night Football’ in Week 13 that is bound to piss off almost every fan who resides outside of Mile High City.
The 9-2 Denver Broncos are scheduled to visit the 3-8 Washington Commanders at Northwest Stadium on ‘Sunday Night Football’ in Week 13. That game, which would have featured two of the league’s best young quarterbacks, was appealing before Jayden Daniels suffered a serious elbow injury in Week 9 against the Seattle Seahawks.
With the Daniels-less Commanders out of the playoff race, it would have made sense for the NFL to flex in a juicier matchup for prime-time.
But according to a report from Nicki Jhabvala of The Athletic, the NFL is keeping the Broncos-Commanders game in the ‘SNF’ spotlight. It remains to be seen if Daniels will play again this season, but it’s far more likely that fans will watch the red-hot Broncos face Marcus Mariota instead.
Since there are three Thanksgiving Thursday games and a Black Friday contest, the NFL had fewer options for potential “flex” games. Keep in mind that the flex rules allow CBS and Fox to “protect” one game from getting moved each week.
What Are The ‘Sunday Night Football’ Flex Rules?
The NFL can flex a maximum of two ‘SNF’ games between Weeks 5-10, and as many of those contests as they wish from Weeks 11 to 17. The league, however, must give at least 12 days’ notice of any schedule changes.
CBS’ marquee matchup in Week 13 is the Buffalo Bills-Pittsburgh Steelers game at Acrisure Stadium, and there’s zero chance they’d willingly switch that out. For Fox, they’d probably wish to protect the Los Angeles Rams-Carolina Panthers or Minnesota Vikings-Seattle Seahawks game.
The league has yet to flex any of its prime-time games this season, but that’s sure to change sooner rather than later. For instance, there are zero playoff implications for the Vikings-Dallas Cowboys Week 15 and Miami Dolphins-Cincinnati Bengals Week 16 ‘SNF’ games.
