Hoping someone can explain to me to what the rationale is behind the way the NFL schedule their game times.
You have one game on a Thursday night, one or two games on the Monday night, but then every other game is scheduled into 1 main time slot and a few into a couple of others on Sunday. (Which as an aside leads to the show called Redzone which jumps to follow single plays between multiple games. Which can be very confusing at times. Do fans of NFL brought up with the sport enjoy watching a Redzone type broadcast?)
In comparison, in Australia I watch a lot of Rugby League, the schedule is usually, two games Friday night, three games on Saturday, two-three games on Sunday and a game on Monday night. The Saturday and Sunday games are scheduled back to back, so as one game ends, the next starts. So if I’m inclined I can sit down and watch 2-3 games back to back.
There are obviously some differences, Australia being a smaller market, less games each weekend, and the timing of the games themselves, a League game won’t ad more than ~20 minutes tops to the scheduled run time, whereas an NFL match can run a long time overtime.
Still doesn’t explain to me the logic in scheduling ~8 games to all kick off at the same time. Seems to limit the potential TV market to me? Any ideas?
Only a few games a week will draw a national audience, and those will get the primetime slots. Actually, the Sunday night matchup is usually the best as eventually they’ll get to pick their game. Other games are limited to local broadcasts, and I guess 1PM EST maximizes those audiences without overlapping with the primetime games.
The NFL will also typically play some Saturday games in the final one or two weeks of the season, but those occur after the college football season is over (save for bowl games, which happen on just about every day / night of the week). But, yes, generally, the NFL has stayed away from Fridays and Saturdays, at least in part so they don’t overlap with high school and college games.
NFL games are far more spread out than they used to be. Up until 1970, games were only on Sunday afternoons. Monday Night Football started in 1970, Sunday Night Football in 1987, and Thursday Night only became a season-long thing in the past few seasons.
16 games in a week early and late in the season (when no one is on bye); 13-14 during bye weeks.
One parenthetical thing to add: NFL coaches and players generally dislike playing games on days other than Sunday.
NFL teams follow extremely regimented schedules through the week. Playing on Thursday (or Saturday) throws that schedule out of whack, and forces the team to compress preparation and practice for the upcoming game, as well as shortening the time for rehabbing injured players. Playing on Monday has the same effect on the game for the following week.
An article from New York Newsday which outlines a typical NFL team’s weekly schedule:
In fact, there is a federal law that prohibits broadcasting an NFL game between 6 PM on a Friday night and 11:59 PM on a Saturday night within 75 miles (120 km) of the location of a college or high school football game, from the second Friday in September to the second Saturday in December (which is usually when the last “regular season” college game, between the U.S. Military (West Point) and Naval (Annapolis) academies, colloquially known as “The Army-Navy Game”, is played).
How many AFL games during the regular season have 2:30 Saturday starts? For that matter, how many soccer matches in one of England’s four top leagues start at 3:00? The NFL traditionally has had its games played on Sundays at 1 PM local time, even before television existed. It’s more noticeable in the NFL as there are 32 teams.
Not sure on AFL, but NRL (Rugby League) has a game start around 3pm every Saturday. The local cable provider has their “Super Saturday” show with the three back to back games, usually starting at ~3pm, ~5pm, and ~7pm.
This is the main reason, I’d say - football is an extremely physically demanding game, and players need the week off to heal up. Having short weeks before Thursday games is the worst and extremely unpopular among the players/coaches. Preparation is also key, as the game is much more “chess match”-ish than other more free-flowing sports, and gameplans will vary greatly based on opponent.
The current practice is to fit all games (except for prime time games), into two time slots. Games played in the Eastern or Central time zones are usually played in the early time slot, which is 1:00 pm Eastern Time or 12:00 noon Central Time, but a few are scheduled for the latter slot at 4:15 Eastern Time or 3:15 pm Central Time. Games played in the Mountain and Pacific time zones are generally always scheduled for the latter time slot, which is 2:15 pm Mountain time or 1:15 pm Pacific Time.
Rationale? Money. Piles and piles of money. The NFL is extremely popular and over the years has expanded the days and times it will play because with four networks wanting games they will collect huge sums of $$$… The Thursday games are brutal on players who don’t have time to recuperate but the NFL will tell you with a straight face that injuries happen about as frequent as on Sundays.
I’m not sure about federal law to protect college and high school games but I wouldn’t be surprised. Those are hugely popular in many parts of the country, particular the South and Midwest and they wouldn’t be adverse to telling their Senators and Representatives to write it into law. They would feel that tv broadcasts of NFL games during the same time would hurt high school and college attendance. In 1973 Congress did pass a law mandating local blackouts of NFL home games be lifted if the game sold out 72 hours before kick off. The law expired but the NFL kept it just to keep Congress happy.
Technically, there are two different “late game” start times. If the game is on that Sunday’s doubleheader network (CBS or Fox, or, in week 17, both), the game starts at 4:25 Eastern, mainly to make it extremely hard to put the network in a situation of overlapping games; if the game is on the other network, it starts at 4:05 Eastern, so that the network’s programming in the cities that show these games (and there usually aren’t that many outside of the Mountain and Pacific time zones, where the game should end before that network’s Sunday night programming begins anyway) isn’t affected too much.
One story I remember about Don Shula (the winningest coach in NFL history) is that he once had a hissy fit when the team bus got to the stadium 15 minutes early. Threw his itinerary out.
When George Allen died, one writer recounted that he interviewed him at his home a few years earlier. Allen made some coffee and suggested they drink it in the kitchen so the writer would have his coffee and notepad on the table instead of switching them on the coffee table in the living room. More efficient. The writer said he wasn’t surprised to read Allen’s body was discovered in the kitchen.
New York is the most common Eastern time zone market to have these local 4:05 starts, since they never schedule Jets and Giants games at the same time.
I was going to count how many times this happens in New York, but with the NFL’s flexible schedule rules, it’s impossible, as all Sunday afternoon games in the eastern half of the country are initially scheduled for 1 PM Eastern. For example, on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, both the Giants and Jets have 1 PM games; I am assuming that one of them will be moved to the 4:05/4:25 time slot.
Note that they have to move a game - for the past two years, the 49ers and Raiders both had 4:00 games on the same day (then again, both times were in Week 17, which have to be division games, so the only way either has a 1:00 game is if the 49ers are in St. Louis or the Raiders in Kansas City, and it’s just not possible to have at least one of those happen every season) - but it wouldn’t make sense to have them play at the same time if the NFL can help it.
And just to answer a question from the OP: I love RedZone. When my team (Eagles) isn’t playing, RedZone lets me watch every game at once. (Though I’ve wondered how the announcer–who is on the air for almost 7 hours straight–goes to the bathroom. Bucket under the desk?)
Title 15, Section 1293, United States Code:
“The first sentence of section 1291 of this title shall not apply to any joint agreement described in such section which permits the telecasting of all or a substantial part of any professional football game on any Friday after six o’clock postmeridian or on any Saturday during the period beginning on the second Friday in September and ending on the second Saturday in December in any year from any telecasting station located within seventy-five miles of the game site of any intercollegiate or interscholastic football contest scheduled to be played on such a date if—
(1) such intercollegiate football contest is between institutions of higher learning both of which confer degrees upon students following completion of sufficient credit hours to equal a four-year course, or
(2) in the case of an interscholastic football contest, such contest is between secondary schools, both of which are accredited or certified under the laws of the State or States in which they are situated and offer courses continuing through the twelfth grade of the standard school curriculum, or the equivalent, and
(3) such intercollegiate or interscholastic football contest and such game site were announced through publication in a newspaper of general circulation prior to August 1 of such year as being regularly scheduled for such day and place.”
Section 1291 gives the NFL an anti-trust exemption when it comes to showing its games on TV.