Hey, NFL: Show me the games, every day

The NFL is on top of its game. But what if a crazy idea helped it score even more with fans?

On the eve of this weekend's Superbowl, I'm here with a bold suggestion designed to shake up the NFL as we know and love it. It's not realistic, of course, as the nation's most popular sports enterprise is not likely to change much given its current, undisputed reign as America's (sports) passtime.

Here it is anyway though: Let's change the NFL schedule. Not just tweak it- explode it, in a big way. The central idea is to eliminate the NFL's primarily-Sunday schedule and make them a week-long league.

With an average of 14 games per week and all but one coming on Sunday between 1pm and 11pm EST, the NFL creates a "destination" style event around its schedule. But while that benefits them by creating excitement and extreme focus around each week's matches, I think fans- and the networks- are in a state of extreme hypnosis with their love of the Sunday-only lineup.

Think about it: Imagine if you could catch 5, 6, 8 or more or more NFL games each week instead of the 3-4 you're maxing out on now. Or, think of those times when you've missed the games because you absolutely had to be somewhere on Sunday afternoon. Sure, you can TiVo the game- but as many of us know, recording sporting events for later viewing is risky at best.

With those caveats and possibilities in mind, here's how I'd reinvent the NFL as a daily destination from September through January:

* 2 games per day, every day of the work week: I propose the NFL schedule two games per day, Monday through Friday. The first game at 7pm, the other at 9pm EST. The league can then place its lower-priority games at the 7pm slot each weekday, serving the team's fans, while allowing for more than two or three marquee games per week (since parity is the law of the land, why not lower expecations with more "marquee" games, not less?)

* 1 game on Saturday: Saturday nights are dumping grounds for networks- the big four barely even bother to track ratings that night. Instead, let one lucky network get a mid-level or even marquee NFL matchup and air it at 8pm eastern.

* 3 games on Sunday: Start Sunday's games at Noon eastern, with games following at 4pm and 8pm. Make them all marquee, and let the networks keep their pre-game shows, but in this case they'll be more valuable as they look back on the week that was- with games happening throughout the week, viewers will have an easier time relating and digesting the wrap-up programming.

In this scenario, no team would play on a set day of the week- rather, game dates for each team would rotate based on matchup and location. It sounds complicated, but it's much less trouble than major league baseball goes through to set their schedules. And no team would have to worry about short weeks- the schedule would be set so that a minium of six days passed between a team's previous game and its next one.

Why would the networks buy into a schedule like this? Besides the reasons above, a full-week schedule opens up more slots for more networks to air NFL games. It also reduces the need for networks to air low-rated filler like the European lawn bowling championships and gives alternative networks a chance to slot some games, drawing viewers and raising their profiles.

As for which networks get to air which games and when? I say let ESPN keep its new Monday Night slot, and give them two other early games through the week to air on ESPN2. Then, the rest of the weekday schedule can be split among other networks, including FoxSports, Outdoor Life, Fox, and even the broadcast nets, who can fill empty Friday nights with games that are guaranteed to provide a solid ratings bump.

Why would fans care? Because their lives are at once more free from, and also more filled with, football. Instead of clearning time on Sundays otherwise spent with family, travelling, working, or on home repair, fans can find the NFL on their own time, on weeknights, when they're more likely to be free to catch their team's game. Die hards, meanwhile, won't be locked into a costly satellite subscription package that despite its price still doesn't give them a good way to catch more than one game at a time.

I'm betting that in the same way nightly baseball games create a daily connection to the sport, the constancy of a week-long NFL schedule will spark even greater interest in the season, helping it to feel "longer" even as it fields the exact same amoung of games as last season.

Finally, despite its rigid commitment to the exclusivity of its offerings, I believe it is in the best long-term interest of the NFL to transition to this type of schedule. Media, in its many forms, is essentially a diversion, much like sports. And as media learns the increasing power of "unlocking" its closely-held content and turning it over to viewers for the betterment of its own bottom line, the NFL can also recognize and benefit greatly from converting its most prized possesion into a more fan-friendly experience.

Back To Top