The saga of an expanded NFL Thursday Night Football package continues. Back when the NFL Lockout was in full swing, it was reported that the NFL was considering adding to the current package of 8 Thursday Night Football games, making it a full season of games with NFL Network holding the second half of the season as it does now, with a new partner coming in to air the first half. According to the report in Sports Business Journal, the new schedule of Thursday Night Football would happen as early as 2012 and the NFL was in negotiations with potential new partners.
But then after the lockout was settled and this season was about to get underway, NFL Commish Roger Goodell put the breaks on the idea saying he would not award a new package just yet.
Cut to today and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King reports that in a podcast recorded with Goodell, NFL Network could see an expanded schedule as soon as next season. It wouldn’t be for the entire 17 weeks, but I’m thinking 10-12 games, seeing games from Weeks 2-4 in September and then picking up again in Week 10 in late October/early November as NFL Network currently does now. The NFL would avoid conflicting with the baseball postseason in October. The Commish did add that the schedule would perhaps evolve to an entire season with an additional partner, but it wouldn’t happen next season.
My thinking in addition to adding more games, it’s another enticement to holdouts Time Warner Cable and Cablevision to say, “NFL Network has more than just half of a schedule, we have 10 (or more) games, pick us up.”
So the on-again/off-again saga of Thursday Night Football continues. We’ll be covering where it all ends whenever the story picks up again.
