The NFL will be "considering the possibility of ending, or at least limiting, Thursday Night Football," according to a source cited by Mike Florio of PRO FOOTBALL TALK. The current contract with CBS and NBC runs through '17, "which means that changes to the package could be made" by '18 -- "barring a renegotiation." Options "include (but aren’t limited to) getting rid of Thursday games completely and possibly starting the package at Thanksgiving and continuing it through the end of the season, with games likely to generate broad interest selected in April for November/December programming." The money generated from NFL Network due to the annual slate of exclusive games "isn’t large enough to make it an impediment to broader efforts to strike the right balance between giving national audiences enough, but not too much, pro football" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 11/27). Pro Football HOFer John Madden said, "Something has to be done about Thursday night football. It just doesn’t work. It’s not only a fan thing, it’s a team thing. It’s a safety thing. It’s a competitive thing. It doesn’t work. I know about money, and I know about business. Maybe you have to tweak stuff a little more. To help teams, maybe you get a bye the week before" (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 11/24).
CARD TRICK? In Boston, Ben Volin reports Patriots President Jonathan Kraft "threw some water on the buzz that the NFL may be cutting some commercial time out of its broadcasts in an effort to speed up the game and retain fans, saying before last week’s 49ers game that 'nothing formally has been discussed.'" Kraft mentioned that the owners have "discussed, very casually, about having some sort of 'wild-card' game in the NFL schedule that would allow the NFL to schedule two teams that aren’t part of the regular schedule rotation." Kraft: "We have talked about at the league meetings that if we were ever to do something with the way the schedule rotates or if games were ever to be added, could it be a wild-card game that would make sense. But beyond the very hypothetical, I think we’re a long way from seeing that happen, as great as it would be for the game" (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/27).
