TV network executives from CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC beat a path to Houston’s Marriott Marquis during Super Bowl week to lobby the NFL’s senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations, Howard Katz, for the best schedule next season. The running joke during the week was that each network requested 16 Cowboys games, with the Packers filling in during the Cowboys’ bye week.
While nothing is set in stone, a few of the league’s marquee dates are starting to take shape.
It seems clear that the league will schedule a Falcons-Patriots Super Bowl rematch for its opening night game, following the thrilling overtime finish this month.
On Thanksgiving, Fox looks likely to get a Packers-Lions game, and odds are that CBS will wind up with a Chargers-Cowboys game. The only other AFC team the Cowboys play in Dallas is Kansas City, and that game likely will be slotted for a late afternoon national window on CBS. It’s possible that the NFL could cross-flex an NFC team to play the Cowboys, as it did two years ago with the Panthers. But the money here is on a Chargers-Cowboys Thanksgiving game.
The schedule is not nearly completed and many of these games could shift, but other possibilities that have been discussed are:
■ Just like last season, it seems likely that the Cowboys will play two consecutive Thursday night games — on Thanksgiving and the following Thursday.
■ ESPN carried last season’s Mexico City game between the Raiders and Texans. Expect this year’s Mexico City game between the Raiders and Patriots to go to CBS.
■ Don’t expect the NFL to move its Sunday night division playoff to prime time, as it did with this year’s Steelers-Chiefs game because of the weather. Instead, look for it to adopt the championship game schedule, where the first game kicks off at 3 p.m. and the second game kicks off at 6:30 p.m.
■ It’s clear that the NFL will not take games out of its Thursday package. But it could move more of those “Thursday Night Football” games to Saturday once the college football season ends. That would mean that some teams may not have a short-week Thursday game all season.
