NFL Network drew a 3.7 overnight rating for the Jaguars' 21-13 win over the Titans, a figure that will likely translate to the lowest "Thursday Night Football" telecast for the '14 season to date. Figures for the Portland and Seattle-Tacoma markets are delayed. NFL Net's previous "TNF" low this season was a 5.1 overnight for Saints-Panthers in Week 9 (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).
FCC WON'T LET YOU BE? The NATIONAL JOURNAL's Brendan Sasso reported the FCC on Thursday "rejected a petition that claimed the name 'Redskins' violates broadcast indecency rules." The author of the petition, George Washington Univ. law professor John Banzhaf III, argued the "derogatory racial and ethnic slur" is deeply offensive to American Indians. But in its ruling, the FCC's Media Bureau noted that it has "traditionally banned only words that are 'sexual or excretory in nature.'" The agency also "warned that banning the name could violate the free-speech rights of TV and radio stations." Banzhaf said that he "expected the defeat and that it's really just 'round one' of the fight" (NATIONALJOURNAL.com, 12/18).
THE RETURN OF CHUCKY: In Boston, Chad Finn writes it is a "good thing" that ESPN's Jon Gruden earlier this week signed a contract extension. Gruden has "become everything the network hoped he would be when they hired him as a novice commentator four months after he’d been fired by the Buccaneers." Though he has "never watched a quarterback that he couldn’t praise in some way, Gruden is an uncommonly charismatic analyst with a knack for making playbook jargon sound interesting" (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/19).
TWO-RECEIVER SET: On Long Island, Neil Best notes Friday night's "A Football Life: Jimmy Smith & Keenan McCardell" on NFL Network is "worth watching, in part because it does a good job telling the past and present tale of the underappreciated former Jaguars receivers." Smith has "fallen on hard times since the Jags' heyday about 15 years ago; McCardell has flourished." The Giants' Tom Coughlin, who coached McCardell and Smith in Jacksonville, also "plays a central role in the show" (NEWSDAY, 12/19).
