The NFL has flexed its ever-growing muscles today and shifted around the Week 17 schedule to bring more attractive games into more attractive time slots. The problem is that they have, in doing so, consciously assigned advantage, and that’s just not right.
The Denver-Chargers game is a no-brainer and no problem. They are the only two teams affected by their game, so it doesn’t matter when they play. But other games, like Jets-Dolphins, Jags-Ravens and Cowboys-Eagles, affect other teams (namely the Patriots, Bucs and Bears), and it’s not right that the League has now given these teams now playing at 4:15 the advantage of knowing what they have to do to get into the playoffs. If the Patriots win at 1pm, the Jets know they can’t win the division. Will they play less hard? Maybe. Also, if the Bucs or Bears win at 1pm, the Eagles have nothing to play for. Will they play less hard against the Cowboys? These are rivalry games, so maybe not. But why take that risk? Why open the door to potentially giving the Dolphins and Cowboys big advantages by discouraging their opponents? If the League is going to switch around game times in the most crucial week of the season, they should do it to even out advantage (like have every team affected playing at the same time) instead of artificially assigning an advantage to some teams.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 3:24 AM
Hmmm, was this written by a Patriots fan?
“If the Patriots win at 1pm, the Jets know they can’t win the division. Will they play less hard?”
But if the Ravens — playing at the same time — lose, a Jets win gets them the wild card. So the Jets have tons of incentive to play hard. This is why both the Ravens and Jets games were flexed to the same time.
As for the Eagles, I doubt they will have much trouble getting up to play the Cowboys.
I like the Flex schedule and spreading out the matchups. This Sunday, 10 of 16 games have playoff implications and to have them all at the same time to avoid perceived “unfairness” would not be fair to fans who want to see any many meaningful games as possible.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 10:16 AM
Yes, of course this was written by a Patriots fan. But that’s not why I wrote it. I personally put more emphasis on fairness than what the fans want. The NFL has shown over and over and over that they don’t really care about fairness, they just want to make money. This is par for the course.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 PM
I hadn’t thought about it, but you make sense.
Go Giants! Go Pats!
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 1:31 PM
You must be happy that Belichick has put down the video camera for the season so you don’t get a lot of flack for throwing around the concept of fairness.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 2:45 PM
“I personally put more emphasis on fairness than what the fans want.”
But your premise was flawed — since the Ravens and Jets play at the same time, and since a Ravens loss opens the door to a Jets wild card, they HAVE to play hard, so fairness is not in play here.
on Dec 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Cyd, I would like nothing more than the Jets “not to play hard”. NOTHING MORE.
on Dec 24th, 2008 at 1:30 AM
From Peter King’s mailbag today:
THIS IS A GOOD, AND UNDERRATED, POINT. From Blaise Laveay, of Kelowna, British Columbia: “Peter, I just heard that the Jets/Dolphins game has been moved to 4:15 on Sunday. While I applaud the NFL’s idea to have some interesting games on throughout the day, I believe this is a huge travesty!! If the Patriots win the early game, the Jets will have no chance at winning the division. Are we really to believe that if push comes to shove late in that game that the Jets are going to do everything in their power to win… and hand their hated rivals the division crown? This is a poor move by a league that usually thinks things through better than this.”
King: Excellent, excellent point. I agree. The league should have the Patriots and Dolphins and Jets playing at the same time Sunday. I understand the desire to maximize the East Coast ratings Sunday for CBS, but it creates a competitive disadvantage for the Patriots to be sure. It’s absolutely unfair because if the Patriots and the Ravens both win at 1, the Jets take the field knowing they have absolutely nothing to play for.
Of course, the Ravens game is also at 4, not at 1. But his point applies to the Eagles/Cowboys given that the Bucs play at 1.
on Dec 24th, 2008 at 1:40 AM
This is a valid point and regret the fact they moved the Dallas/Phil game to the late afternoon (2:00 pm here in Albuquerque). Being a long-time Buccaneer fan, obviously we should not look beyond taking more important matters first – like beating the Raiders – but it really makes me wonder how deflated the Eagles and the fans at LFF will feel when the know that they are already out of contention – I am hoping- at kickoff….
on Dec 27th, 2008 at 3:12 PM
As a Bucs fan, I couldn’t be more unhappy with the flex scheduling this weekend. Up until this point, I don’t believe the NFL has ever given teams advantage by changing the schedule. To do it at this point and possibly decide playoff teams with it just isn’t right.
on Dec 28th, 2008 at 5:44 AM
All things being equal it would be much fairer if all games will playoff contenders would be played at the same time. Unfortunately, television would never allow it.
I really don’t like the idea of changing game times where it could give even a slight advantage to one of the teams. If Team A is a playoff contender and they were originally scheduled for a late game then so be it but an early game should never be moved to late if one of the teams might be eliminated from contention by an early outcome.
on Dec 28th, 2008 at 10:00 AM
I just wonder about this scenario. IF the Patriots win this afternoon, which I think is a big IF. And IF the Ravens are up big late in their game against Jacksonville, which I think is likely. And IF the Jets-Dolphins game is close in the fourth quarter, which I think is likely. IF these three scenarios play out, would the Jets purposely tank their game in the fourth quarter to keep the Patriots out of the playoffs? I’ve long thought a team can do whatever it wants in Week 17; It doesn’t owe it to anyone to play hard. How would I feel if a team purposely tanked a game to hurt another team? I dunno. Maybe we’ll see.