The San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots aren’t in primetime on Sunday. They’re not even the later of the two afternoon kickoffs.
However, a sizable chunk of the country will get the Patriots’ visit to Levi’s Stadium on FOX.
A broadcast map produced by 506 Sports has Patriots-49ers in at least a portion of more than half the states Sunday afternoon:
The 49ers game will show in the blue areas of the map.
Yellow belongs to the Rams-Bears game in Chicago, and orange is where the Commanders-Cardinals game will show. The red area is the Eagles-Buccaneers matchup. Saints-Falcons will be on FOX in the green areas, and the light blue belongs to the Bengals-Panthers matchup.
It makes sense the Pats-49ers game would be so dominant in the FOX coverage Sunday. Both teams have sizable fan bases, and it’s a pretty significant game for both clubs. The Patriots are looking to bounce back from a blowout loss to the New York Jets last Thursday. The 49ers are aiming to do the same after their crushing collapse against the Los Angeles Rams.
San Francisco is heavily favored to beat the rebuilding Patriots, but they were also favored against the Rams and managed to let that game slip. This game won’t match the cachet of the 49ers-Patriots showdown in the 2012 season, but it’ll still carry some importance and we see it in the FOX map.
Kickoff from Levi’s Stadium is slated for 1:05pm Pacific Time.
