1. The NFL has a lot of windows to fill with Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and the most-watched time slot of them all, Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET.
There are also the standalone International games. In addition, you have the late-season Saturday games. And this season, the NFL gave Peacock an exclusive game in Week 16.
With all of these windows, the NFL has to make a radical change to how it does the schedule so we can avoid being stuck with nights like last night.
The solution is radical yet simple.
When the league releases the schedule in the spring, every single game after, let’s say, Week 8 or Week 10 or even Week 12, should have a day and time of TBA. Set the games, but don’t set the day and time. Then, around the midpoint of the season, when we have an idea of which teams are good, which teams are bad and which teams are unwatchable, set the days and times for the remaining games.
The NFL already does this for Week 18. It's time to start doing this a few weeks earlier.
I know many of you are ready to send me a tweet saying, “What about people with tickets to the games?”
Here’s a little secret for you: The NFL doesn’t care about people going to games. They care about the 15–25 million people who watch the games on television and streaming services. The NFL makes more than $100 billion from television rights. The person who goes to the stadium is not a priority.
Even if Thursday’s Chargers-Raiders game wasn’t an embarrassment to the league, there was no way in Week 15 that we should be subjected to a nationally televised game featuring two teams who are out of the playoff picture.
The NFL implemented flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football this season, but it was a fake thing. The rule says teams need 28 days’ notice to get flexed out of TNF. That means a team will never get flexed out of TNF.
How about next week? The league decided to give Peacock an exclusive game. That means the only way to watch the game is on Peacock. It will not air on any other channel. What is the game? The Bills at the Chargers. I’m gonna guess Easton Stick doesn’t generate a ton of new subscribers for Peacock.
Obviously the Justin Herbert injury was a factor here, and the NFL wouldn’t have been able to do anything about the fact that he got hurt in Week 14 as the Chargers were set to play standalone games in Weeks 15 and 16.
However, by Week 10, we knew the Chargers were not a team that was going to be in the playoff race, yet we were stuck with them.
Next Sunday night, NFL Network has the Patriots at Broncos. In Week 17, Amazon has the Jets at Browns. The Patriots and Jets should absolutely not be featured in prime time at this point in the season.
Here's another gem in Week 17. NBC has Packers at Vikings on Sunday Night Football. Not a terrible game and it will have playoff implications. However, buried at 1 p.m. that day is Dolphins at Ravens, which is a way more appealing game.
Bottom line: If the league is going to have a plethora of standalone games, it needs to do everything in its power to make those games appealing. That means holding off on scheduling the second half or final quarter of the season until as late as possible.
2. Everyone on Twitter has had a field day mocking this tweet from Entertainment Tonight.
Travis Kelce was noticeably absent during Taylor Swift's 34th birthday celebration in New York City, but for a good reason.
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) December 14, 2023
A source tells ET that he "remains committed to playing his best and doing his best on and off the field. The team practices are critical, mandatory to… pic.twitter.com/0ej8IupnJx
Personally, I find this tweet waaaaaaay dumber.
OUT: After criticizing the distraction Taylor Swift was having on the NFL and promising to stop covering her, Legendary broadcaster Al Michaels is out of NBC’s NFL playoff coverage. Swift is key to the NFL’s future and Al is a dinosaur according to Swifties… pic.twitter.com/ZDS60yHxk0
— @amuse (@amuse) December 12, 2023
3. I had the unfortunate experience of watching this, so I have to share my misery. If you guys wanna see something painfully unfunny and totally cringe, here you go.
4. Classy words here from Rudy Gobert, who was choked by Draymond Green a few months ago, on Green’s indefinite suspension.
Rudy Gobert on Draymond Green: “I have empathy for him. You see somebody that’s not well inside and suffering. You take away the game and all that, and you want somebody to be well and be able to do what we do every night and compete and be happy.” https://t.co/Awol2ow6bs
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) December 15, 2023
5. We got the bittersweet news Thursday that Curb Your Enthusiasm will return to HBO on Feb. 4 for Season 12, but it will be the final season as Larry David will bring the show to a close.
"Curb Your Enthusiasm" is ending with Season 12, which premieres Feb. 4 on HBO and Max. The 10-episode season will conclude with a series finale on April 7.
— Variety (@Variety) December 14, 2023
Larry David says: "As 'Curb' comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this 'Larry David' persona… pic.twitter.com/y27EBGj5Ns
Back in 2017, I wrote a piece on Curb‘s all-time best sports moments.
6. A brand-new episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped Thursday, and it features an interview with New York Post sports media reporter Andrew Marchand.
Marchand discusses the news that NBC will not be using Al Michaels to call one of its four NFL playoff games this season; the fallout from MLB Network’s Jon Morosi erroneously reporting on a Shohei Ohtani flight to Toronto, leading to speculation that he’d sign with the Blue Jays; and whether the NBA’s in-season tournament was a success.
Other topics covered with Marchand include Troy Aikman’s pulling no punches regarding NFL officials, why flex scheduling is useless for Thursday Night Football, Tony Romo’s season and much more.
Following Marchand, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week we talk about the curious response to Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito, why YouTube is such a better home for NFL Sunday Ticket than DirecTV and more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.
You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.
