Debates didn’t swing Monday matchups

The first presidential debate ran up against a Monday night football game involving teams from two solid Trump states: Georgia and Louisiana. A later debate is scheduled to run up against a Sunday night football game involving teams from two solid Clinton states: New York and Wisconsin.

The absence of any swing states caused me to contact the NFL to see whether the league considered national politics when crafting its schedule. The answer is no — neither blue states nor red states were considered when putting the schedule together.

Tonight’s Falcons-Saints game was scheduled to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the reopening of the Superdome following the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, an NFL source said. These are the same two teams that played in that 2006 game.

The Oct. 9 Giants-Packers game was one the league wanted to get into the “Sunday Night Football” rotation. The game just happened to fall on the same date as a presidential debate, an NFL source said.