Post by TheShadow on Dec 12, 2003 5:48:39 GMT -5
www.canoe.ca
Associated Press
NFL owners may be asked to consider the possibility of two Monday night games each week to avoid the recurring problem of meaningless late-season games in the league's showcase telecast.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue floated the idea in the second of a two-part interview aired last night on HBO's Inside the NFL.
"We'd like to look to see if we could put more than one game in the prime-time window," he said. "The one that is more attractive would be telecast nationally; the other could be telecast regionally."
The Monday night schedule is released in early spring.
Teams with winning records the previous year normally play in the majority of the prime-time games.
But salary-cap induced parity has led to drastic annual fluctuations. If this season ended now, nine of last season's 12 playoff teams would miss the post-season, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, who played in the Super Bowl.
So, ABC has been asking the league for the flexibility to switch a Sunday game to Monday late in a season to avoid a meaningless matchup.
Fox and CBS, which have the contracts for Sunday games, have resisted, suggesting they would lose viewers if there was a late switch that took an attractive matchup from their schedule.
Tagliabue said a late switch would also inconvenience fans with tickets for a game. His alternative would be the two games.
But that would still have to be approved by the networks and the owners -- perhaps at league meetings next March.
Associated Press
NFL owners may be asked to consider the possibility of two Monday night games each week to avoid the recurring problem of meaningless late-season games in the league's showcase telecast.
Commissioner Paul Tagliabue floated the idea in the second of a two-part interview aired last night on HBO's Inside the NFL.
"We'd like to look to see if we could put more than one game in the prime-time window," he said. "The one that is more attractive would be telecast nationally; the other could be telecast regionally."
The Monday night schedule is released in early spring.
Teams with winning records the previous year normally play in the majority of the prime-time games.
But salary-cap induced parity has led to drastic annual fluctuations. If this season ended now, nine of last season's 12 playoff teams would miss the post-season, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, who played in the Super Bowl.
So, ABC has been asking the league for the flexibility to switch a Sunday game to Monday late in a season to avoid a meaningless matchup.
Fox and CBS, which have the contracts for Sunday games, have resisted, suggesting they would lose viewers if there was a late switch that took an attractive matchup from their schedule.
Tagliabue said a late switch would also inconvenience fans with tickets for a game. His alternative would be the two games.
But that would still have to be approved by the networks and the owners -- perhaps at league meetings next March.