The featured game of the NFL’s Week 4 schedule has been postponed. Plus: schedule announcements for the Pac-12, NASCAR and IndyCar, and more.
Pats-Chiefs second Week 4 game to be postponed
Sunday’s Patriots-Chiefs NFL regular season game has been postponed to either Monday or Tuesday — at the earliest — after Patriots QB Cam Newton and a member of the Chiefs practice squad tested positive for COVID-19. Patriots-Chiefs was scheduled to be the featured game of the NFL’s highly-rated 4:25 PM ET national window on CBS. As a result of the postponement, the NFL has moved Colts-Bears from 1 PM ET to the 4:25 window. [Related: 2020 NFL schedule.]
Patriots-Chiefs is the second Week 4 game to be postponed due to positive COVID-19 tests. The NFL previously pushed back Sunday’s scheduled Titans-Steelers game to Week 7. Notably, the league initially planned to push that game back to Monday or Tuesday before deciding on a later date.
A Tuesday date would put Patriots-Chiefs in direct competition with Game 4 of the NBA Finals, though the NBA would get the short end of the stick in that scenario. [NFL PR 10.3]
Pac-12 plans to open shortened season with 9 AM PT game
The Pac-12 conference is scheduled to begin its shortened football season with a Noon ET/9 AM PT USC-Arizona State game on FOX November 7, it was announced Saturday. The conference considered scheduling 9 AM PT games last season to accommodate FOX, which has set Noon ET as its showcase college football window, but eventually decided against it.
All Pac-12 games through the first six weeks of the season would air on the ESPN or Fox family of networks. In a typical season, the Pac-12 Network would air any number of games. The seventh week of the season would include the Pac-12 title game on FOX as well as five cross-division games that will be determined by the standings. [Fox Sports PR 10.3, Pac-12 10.3]
NASCAR adds three new stops, drops Chicagoland and Kentucky
The NASCAR Cup Series will make new stops in Nashville, Austin, Tex. (Circuit of the Americas) and Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (Road America) as part of the 2021 schedule released this week, as well as second trips to both Atlanta and Darlington. The Chicagoland and Kentucky races have been dropped from the schedule.
Circuit of the Americas would take the late May date usually occupied by the NASCAR All-Star Race, which moves to June next season. Nashville would take place the week after the All-Star Race, leading off the NBC portion of the schedule. Road America would occupy July 4 weekend, replacing the Brickyard 400, which moves back to August.
IndyCar also announced its schedule this week. After cancellations and postponements necessitated three road course events at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this season, the series plans to schedule two next year, including one in August that would be part of a doubleheader with NASCAR. In addition, IndyCar has added its own Nashville race and plans to expand its Texas weekend to a doubleheader. [NASCAR 9.30, IndyCar 10.1]
Plus: Benetti, XFL, The Spring League
ESPN announced this week that it has reached a contract extension with play-by-play voice Jason Benetti, who will continue in his current roles. … The XFL announced Thursday that it plans to resume play in 2022. … Fox Sports has announced a multi-year agreement to carry “The Spring League,” which plans to make its season debut this fall. Play would begin October 27. [ESPN Front Row 10.1, YouTube 10.1, Fox Sports]
