The Kansas City Chiefs were among the NFL teams to vote in favor of flexible scheduling for “Thursday Night Football” games at the NFL’s annual meeting last month in Arizona.
According to a report from CBS Sports’ Jeff Kerr, each of the Chiefs, Eagles and Ravens voted “yes” on flexible scheduling for Thursday games when it was put to a vote last month. Thursday night games are among those that were previously not able to be flexed. The vote did not pass and was tabled for further discussion when NFL owners meet again in May.
The league did, however, pass a new policy to allow teams to be scheduled for two Thursday night games during the course of the season. It’s a change that both Patrick Mahomes and Justin Reid didn’t quite approve of.
The #Eagles were one of the teams to vote for flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football.
The #Chiefs and #Ravens also voted “yes.”
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) April 3, 2023
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reports that a total of 22 teams voted in favor of the rule change. Eight teams voted “no” and the Panthers and Broncos abstained from voting. The NFL needs just 24 “yes” votes for this rule to pass.
Breer added that Chiefs CEO and Chairman Clark Hunt was one of the owners trying to get both sides of the argument to meet in the middle on an agreement.
After that, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt stepped in and offered another compromise: Instead of four weeks of TNF flexes in 2023, the league could do only two weeks. Others then asked whether they could get 28 days’ notice and just two flexes for Year 1. That calmed down the room, and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie suggested splitting the proposal apart and voting on the two aspects of it separately.
The main qualms from ownership, outside of the potential issues related to player health and safety, seemed to be about having adequate notice when a game was being flexed to or from Thursday night. The initial proposal called for 15 days time.
All in all, the potential for a rule change here is notable for a team like Kansas City, which already plays a ton of its games in prime time. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos reportedly wanted the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes in Week 2 when “Thursday Night Football” debuted on Amazon a season ago. If this policy eventually passes, it stands to reason they’ll want more Chiefs games in the future.
