Under current NFL scheduling procedures, teams are only permitted to play two “short-week” games per season. In practice, the rule ensures that teams are not scheduled for more than two games on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday each year.
Amazon’s Prime Video, which owns the Thursday Night Football package, is most impacted by this scheduling provision. While Prime Video owns most of the NFL’s short-week inventory, weekday games that fall outside its package can significantly impact its schedule. For instance, the six teams scheduled to play on Thanksgiving can play at most one Thursday Night Football game each year. If Christmas falls on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, that’s a handful of additional teams for which Prime Video is limited. The annual Black Friday game, which of course airs on Prime Video, further restricts the weekly Thursday Night Football package.
So, as NFL owners gather on Monday and Tuesday to vote on a series of new proposals, one minor line item is designed to ease restrictions on Amazon.
According to a report by Ben Fischer in Sports Business Journal, the NFL is moving to reclassify Friday games as not subject to the “short-week” provision, thereby allowing teams to be hypothetically scheduled for two Thursday games in addition to a Friday game in the same season. The provision is especially important for Prime Video this season as Christmas falls on a Friday.
It would appear that an exception to the current rule was already made last year. Both the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions played three Thursday games in the middle of the season. Both teams played on Thanksgiving and Christmas (which fell on a Thursday) and also played each other on Thursday Night Football on Dec. 4. Ironically, the Cowboys actually participated in four Thursday games last year, as they opened the season on Opening Night against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The proposed change would codify similar exceptions, which appear to be centered on standalone holiday windows.
As always, the goal for the NFL is to get the highest quality games into the most standalone windows. Any rule change that helps the league meet that end is likely to be eagerly approved by the owners.