NFL considers second Monday night game

[Toxikk Veteran]

NEW YORK -- 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 Thursday 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 postseason, 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 that they would lose viewers if there was a late switch that took an attractive matchup from their schedule.

Tagliabue said a late switch also would inconvenience fans with tickets for a game. His alternative would be the two games.

That would have to be approved by the networks and the owners, perhaps at league meetings in March. He did not say what financial arrangements would be involved, although ABC would have to make a financial concession to the network that loses a Sunday game.

Last year, the owners discussed the possibility of switching Sunday and Monday night games. Because of opposition from Fox and CBS, no vote was taken.

Source: ESPN.com

[CatnipOligarchy]

well the games dont start til 8PM Central, so sure theres time for another game, start it at 4 or 4:30... dont switch games from sunday to monday. its a pain for ticketholders. i give my boss the falcons schedule when it comes out so i can have off for all the home games, so that would be annoying if a game got changed around at the last second

[Toxikk Veteran]

if i was fox, i would be like...

"we will do it, for ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS!!!!! muahahahahah"

[Bizkit]

That would be cool, unless I got the crappy game in my area.

[Mardagg]

That'd be cool.. love Monday night games..

[-=SD=-]

I say no, you got to figure they would have some 2nd rate announcers there, it won't have that same "monday night" feeling. Especially because I don't want to get stuck seeing a local game over the national one.

[Danrarbc]

Why not just keep it at one game and give ABC the option to choose which game they want to cover a month in advance of say the last 8 weeks of the season. Is a month enough notice?

2 games kinda takes away the special lure of Monday night, it's supposed to be special.

[BroChaos Veteran]

i agree with myie2, it wouldn't be the same. just stick with whats good, and what works, and that's just 1 game.

[aem4162]

no! there's too much football on already! :angry:

[IlliniPi]

no! there's too much football on already! :angry:

There can never and will never be too much football on TV.

[Veedems Veteran]

It would wind up hurting them. Their ratings would be divided and it would cause huge problems. They need to look at something like the WWE (no BS comments about it). The second they put another show on, Smackdown, ratings plummetted. Too much of a good thing wears out its welcome fast.

[Mardagg]

There can never and will never be too much football on TV.

I hear that.. the season is much too short as it is!