NFL seems to exempt Friday video games from its restrict of two “short-week” video games per yr

The NFL’s quest to personal as many days of the week as doable is not going to be deterred by trivial issues reminiscent of correct relaxation, restoration, and preparation.

Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, the present annual assembly will embody consideration of a proposed change to the present coverage that limits groups to 2 “short-week” video games per yr.

The revision would exempt Friday games from the calculation. The league presently performs on Black Friday afternoon. In 2026, Christmas lands on a Friday; three video games are seemingly coming, two at a minimal.

Friday additionally turns into one other strategy to cram extra cheese into the pizza after the center of December, when the prohibition on Friday evening video games ends. Why not play one each week? Likewise, if/when the NFL returns to Labor Day weekend for Week 1 — and if/when the next Friday isn’t the second Friday of September — it may stage a Friday evening recreation 5 days after the primary Sunday of the season.

It’s simply one other step, in our view, towards creating as many weekly standalone home windows as doable. Why play eight or 9 video games at 1:00 p.m. ET on a Sunday when these video games will be peeled away and slipped right into a vacant three-hour slot on one of many different days of the week?

Removing Friday from the “short-week” restrict turns into one other approach to make sure most flexibility with regards to choosing the video games for these home windows. And it’s far nearer to the start than the top of the adjustments the league might be making with regards to scheduling.