Let’s do the Viewing Guide for Week 7 in The League Where They Play for Pay.
So who has the dreaded bye this week?
Six teams: Atlanta, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia and San Diego. This makes for some slim pickings for the late games. We’ll get into that later.
Any blackouts?
None. And Tampa Bay actually avoided one by reaching the 85% threshold for tickets sold so local fans will be able to watch the New Orleans Saints-Bucs game and sports bars will do good business.
So what’s up with Fox having no games at 4 p.m.?
Fox thought it would be airing Game 6 of the National League Championship Series at 4:30 p.m. ET so it requested the NFL to load off its contests in Week 7 at 1 p.m. But with the American League Championship Series ending in a sweep, Game 6 of the NLCS was moved to a 7:30 p.m. start. This left Fox with no games at 4 p.m. so you’ll see a Fox NFL Sunday postgame show after the early games, then the studio crew gets to go home early without a late game to deal with.
And this leaves us with just two games at 4:25 p.m. on CBS?
Yes. CBS has Jets-Pats and Jags-Raiders. Of course, CBS will showcase NYJ-NEP to most of the country. I would think that DirecTV’s Red Zone Channel and NFL Network’s RedZone will also end early along with Fox NFL Sunday.
But what about the next couple of weeks? Will we get more late games?
Not in Weeks 8 and 9 at least. In Week 8, just one game at 4 p.m. on CBS and Giants-Cowboys at 4:25 p.m. on Fox. Then in Week 9, two games on Fox at 4 p.m. and just Steelers-Giants at 4:25 p.m. on CBS. And let’s not talk about Week 10 until we get closer.
What are your Games of the Week?
On Fox, both at 1 p.m., there’s Washington at the New York Football Giants (Thom Brennaman/Troy Aikman/Pam Oliver) and the Green Bay Packers at St. Louis (Sam Rosen/Brian Billick/Laura Okmin). For CBS, I’ll pick a very intriguing matchup of 5-1 teams, Baltimore at Houston (Greg Gumbel/Dan Dierdorf) and yes, Jets-Pats (Jim Nantz/Phil Simms).
Anything else?
No. Watch the games and eat some pizza.
