The NFL is "exploring the possibility" of making its TV
schedule "more flexible" in the final weeks of the season to
"showcase more attractive matchups" for its nationally
televised broadcasts, "particularly" ABC's MNF, according to
sources of Leonard Shapiro of the WASHINGTON POST. Team
owners were told at a meeting in N.Y. on Tuesday that the
league "will consider leaving the December TV schedule open"
so that better matchups could be provided to ABC, CBS, Fox
and ESPN. CBS and Fox "could get more competitive games for
the second half" of their Sunday doubleheaders, usually
broadcast nationally. Both networks currently "have
flexibility," but would "have more choices under a plan now
being devised by the NFL." NFL Senior VP/Broadcasting &
Network TV Dennis Lewin declined comment. ABC Sports Dir of
PR Mark Mandel also declined comment on the proposal but
said, "the NFL has always done right by ABC. If either one
of us could do anything to improve ratings, we'll do it"
(WASHINGTON POST, 1/21). USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke writes
that Lewin proposed that "most December games would be
listed as to which team was home but not whether it was a
doubleheader game on CBS, Fox or on ABC's" MNF. The
proposal also says that "on a designated trigger date,
possibly three or four weeks before the games would be
played, ABC, CBS and Fox would pick their games. The three
networks would alternate as to which gets the first pick
each weekend" (USA TODAY, 1/21).
