NFL owners are set to vote next week on controversial plans that would empower the league to reschedule games at short notice for TV purposes.
Owners came close to forcing a rule change at their annual meeting in March that would allow the league to change Thursday Night Football (TNF) games at short notice for TV purposes, known as "flexing in NFL parlance".
"Flexing" the schedule is commonplace late in the season since 2006 to ensure the games with playoff implications are shown in primetime, but that only sees the kick-off times changed. This year, the mechanism is available for Monday Night Football for the first time.
These proposals would allow the league to move games scheduled for a Sunday forward to Thursday Night Football at just 15 days' notice amid pressure from Amazon Prime after underwhelming viewer numbers in the first year of its $1billion-per-season broadcast deal.
Viewer numbers were down around four million per week based on the previous year, which of course was partly due to the change from a linear broadcaster in Fox to a streaming service. But a number of low-quality, unentertaining and inconsequential games did not help Amazon's cause.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and New York Giants owner John Mara have been outspoken on the possible changes to Thursday Night Football, with the latter calling the flex plans "inconsiderate and abusive".
At the annual meeting in March, 22 franchises voted in favour of the TNF flex proposals, falling just two short of the required number to force a change in the rules, with eight owners voting against and two abstaining. However, the matter is on the agenda again when owners hold their spring meeting in Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday and, according to The Athletic, they are set to vote on the proposals again, with an NFL spokesman declining to comment.
While the change would be better for TV viewers and broadcasters, stadium-going fans are sure to face logistical challenges when the owners eventually get their way on the proposals. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insisted the league would bear fans in mind when flexing games to TNF.
He said in March: "There isn’t anybody in any of our organizations that doesn’t put our fans first. Providing the best matchups for our fans is what we do. That’s part of what our schedule has always focused on. Flex has been part of that.
"We are very judicious with it and careful with it. We look at all the impacts of that before a decision is made.”
However, there have been dissenting voices in the league, including Kansas City Chiefs superstar Mahomes and New York Giants owner Mara.
“At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to our games?” he said after the March vote.
“People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance. And 15 days ahead of time to say, ‘Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at 1, now it’s on Thursday night?’ What are we thinking about?
“People have gotten used to going from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night; that doesn’t mean that they like it.
"This year, we could be flexed to Monday night, which I think is really inconsiderate to our ticket holders. To flex a game back to Thursday night, to me, is just abusive. I am adamantly opposed to it. Fortunately, it didn’t get enough votes today, but it will probably be revisited in May.”
Mahomes' grievance relates to the league decision in March which raised the number of times a team can feature on TNF per season from one to two, sharing his displeasure on Twitter.
The imminent vote is sure to be one he again does not want pushed through, with the possibility of games being flexed to TNF, giving players just a few days to recover and prepare after a Sunday game, making it increasingly likely teams could play on Thursdays more than once throughout the season.
