NFL owners have voted to expand flexible scheduling to Thursday Night Football on a one-year trial basis.
Under a resolution approved Monday, the NFL will be able to move games from Sunday afternoon to Thursday Night Football up to two times this coming season, but only between Weeks 13-17 and with at least four full weeks notice. Those are stricter limits than placed on the league’s Sunday and Monday night packages. The plan has been approved for one year only, but will carry into 2024 if no games are flexed this season.
Any game flexed to “TNF” will count toward the participating teams’ limit of two appearances per season and no team can be flexed more than once. The flex scheduling expansion applies only to the Thursday Night Football package, as opposed to the Thursday night games that are part of NBC’s Sunday Night Football package (the Kickoff and Thanksgiving night games).
Five teams are slated to appear twice on the “TNF” package this season — the Eagles, Bears, Steelers, Saints and Jets — meaning that flexing in a game involving those teams would necessitate flexing out one of their other previously-scheduled appearances.
Flex scheduling was already set to expand to ESPN’s Monday Night Football package beginning this fall, part of the new NFL media rights deals that kick in this season. Flex scheduling for that package will be permitted between Weeks 12 and 17.
The NFL began allowing for flex scheduling in the 2006 season as part of NBC’s deal to acquire Sunday Night Football. NBC still has the most generous flexible scheduling allowance, as it can shift games as early as Week 5.
(News from NFL PR)
