I did some research today because of curiosity. It sure seems like the NFL schedule contained a lot of weeks that featured a team that played back-to-back weeks on primetime and/or national television. (I will be using "primetime" and "national TV" synonymously.) What spiked my interest was the tiresomeness of seeing the Jets in so many primetime slots. I decided to dive into the NFL schedule and here is what I found:
On 10 occasions, an NFL team played back-to-back weeks in the national TV spotlight. I consider primetime to be they are the only game on during that time slot.
IND: Wk 3 and 4
CHI: Wk 5 and 6
PHI: Wk 8 and 9
JETS: Wk 10 and 11
NE: Wk 10 and 11
KC: Wk 11 and 12
NYG: Wk 11 and 12
NO: Wk 12 and 13
DAL: Wk 14 and 15
PIT: Wk 14 and 15
Is this normal? Is it on purpose?
I did some more digging. 27 of the 32 teams had at least one primetime game. That seemed high to me, considering the length of time the Lions went without a primetime game BESIDES the Thanksgiving game. (I consider the Thanksgiving game a primetime game.) You would have thought that if in every season 27 teams get a chance to be in the national TV spotlight, what are the odds the Lions are one of the five teams to continuously be excluded? Did KC and JAX deserve THREE primetime games this year? I realize KC made the playoffs in 2010 and that has a ton to do with it, but are those markets bigger than Detroit?
Out of the 27 teams that received a primetime game, 12 play at least 25% of their season in the national spotlight. I don't have a problem with the NFL trying to focus on a select group of teams to sell their product. They all deserve it. But do the JETS deserve 5 games? Do we deserve to have to watch 5 JETS games? That's the bigger deal.
Here is the schedule breakdown for some of the 12 teams that received at least 4 primetime games:
New Orleans, Green Bay, Jets, Philadelphia, B-more, Pittsburgh, and Indy all received 5 games.
"America's Team" received 6.
Also interesting is 7 of the 12 teams come from the NFC.
1 comment:
I think it's pretty easy when you break it down. You have the last three Super Bowl winners, Michael Vick, a New York team (because TV people think the rest of us like NY), the Cowboys (because NFL people think the Cowboys are important), and Baltimore. Okay, I don't know what the Ravens are doing on that list.
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