Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Schraeger is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Season with Peter Schrager. We're here in week eleven.
Speaker 1: We had a bit of a bye week last week.
Speaker 1: I figured it was election week. Well, we'll let you
Speaker 1: listen to that stuff and we'll take the week off.
Speaker 1: It wasn't this great of a slate that we have
Speaker 1: in week eleven. And as we look towards these games,
Speaker 1: I am counting on my hands four different awesome matchups
Speaker 1: like Chiefs versus Bills is amazing to have in any week,
Speaker 1: and it's Week eleven where the stakes couldn't be higher.
Speaker 1: And yet I don't even know if that's the game
Speaker 1: of the week because on Thursday night you've got Eagles
Speaker 1: commanders first time they're playing this season. And then you
Speaker 1: also have a Steelers Ravens game, where the Steelers schedule
Speaker 1: is so interesting they haven't even played a divisional and
Speaker 1: we're entering mid November. The Steelers still have you know,
Speaker 1: obviously they got to play the Ravens this weekend. They're
Speaker 1: gonna play Bengals twice, Browns twice, and the Ravens again,
Speaker 1: and the other one is Sunday Night one that I think
Speaker 1: it's really interesting over the last couple of weeks because
Speaker 1: of the way the teams have performed. The Bengals offense
Speaker 1: has exploded, and though they lost last Thursday, there's still
Speaker 1: four and six and they're going up against a very good,
Speaker 1: very hot Chargers team on Sunday Night and again that
Speaker 1: I can't imagine is going to be a ratings bonanza
Speaker 1: when you have the Chargers and the Bengals square and off.
Speaker 1: But you better believe I'll be watching. They'll be good.
Speaker 1: I have so many thoughts about this week. Where do
Speaker 1: I begin. Let's start with a little unpacking of what
Speaker 1: happened today in Chicago, and I put this on social media.
Speaker 1: I said a little bit on Good Morning Football, but
Speaker 1: this is my podcast. Could talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about it. I'm not angry about it. It happens. Teams
Speaker 1: don't go through the process and always have it all
Speaker 1: work out. But I look at my friend and a
Speaker 1: guy who I thought was I don't know, I thought
Speaker 1: he was not as highly coveted as he should have
Speaker 1: been over this hiring cycle in Cliff Kingsbury, and I
Speaker 1: look at his path of how things went in January,
Speaker 1: once he made it known that after a year away
Speaker 1: from the NFL and working with Caleb Williams at USC
Speaker 1: and basically a pro bono gig for Lincoln Riley just
Speaker 1: so he could work with Caleb Williams and and you know,
Speaker 1: I have an opportunity to go back to his roots
Speaker 1: and work with a star quarterback and build an offense.
Speaker 1: Cliff made it known that he was ready to come
Speaker 1: back to the NFL if there was an appropriate offer
Speaker 1: or taker. He thought he was going to Vegas. They
Speaker 1: brought him in for an interview. He hit it off
Speaker 1: with Antonio Pears. They brought him back to Vegas. He
Speaker 1: hit it off with Tom to LESCo, the GM And
Speaker 1: from what I am told, and it's not directly from Cliff,
Speaker 1: but this is pretty well known. The years on the contract,
Speaker 1: there was a miscommunication as to what was expected and offered.
Speaker 1: And standard standard deals are three year deals for coordinators.
Speaker 1: Now I don't know what Antonio Pierce's deal is. You
Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't want a coordinator's job to be longer than
Speaker 1: the head coach's job, and there might have been something there,
Speaker 1: but the three year deal was not offered in Vegas,
Speaker 1: so Cliff did not take that job. Earlier in the process,
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears flew out to California and met with
Speaker 1: Cliff at a hotel and they met for many hours,
Speaker 1: and he said they obviously meant he wanted to be
Speaker 1: the OC of the Bears, or at least have an
Speaker 1: offer from the Bears. He had Caleb Williams in college.
Speaker 1: They were obviously taking Caleb Williams first. Overall, they knew
Speaker 1: that in their heads, and they met with them for
Speaker 1: several hours and at the end of it there was
Speaker 1: no offer made. I point to those two teams because
Speaker 1: you have two teams who are obviously going into the
Speaker 1: draft and going into the season with giant questions at quarterback,
Speaker 1: but with hopes at the quarterback position. And Cliff has
Speaker 1: proven at the very least, if you don't think he's
Speaker 1: a good head coach, it's fine, But through Mahomes and
Speaker 1: through experience with Kyler Murray in those first few years,
Speaker 1: and of course what we're seeing with Jayden Daniels now.
Speaker 1: But like at the very least, he's great with young quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: and he's great with drawing up offense and great speaking
Speaker 1: with quarterbacks and if he's not gonna be your head coach,
Speaker 1: I think he's a worthy candidate to consider it for
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. Raiders say they don't want to give him
Speaker 1: that commitment. Years wise, they move on. They hire Guy
Speaker 1: luke Getzy. Luke Getzy was fired eight weeks into the
Speaker 1: first year of a three year deal which they did
Speaker 1: give luke Getzy. First month of the season did not
Speaker 1: go well. Second month of the season, he didn't survive it.
Speaker 1: Luke Getzy was fired before Halloween. The Raiders passed on
Speaker 1: Kingsbury over years on a contract. Okay, the Bears, Caleb
Speaker 1: william is going to be the quarterback. Caleb Bincliff have
Speaker 1: a great relationship. They already have a year under their
Speaker 1: belt together. The Bears. They decide that after meeting with Cliff,
Speaker 1: Shane Waldron, who was in Seattle last year, was the
Speaker 1: more appropriate pick and that that was going to be
Speaker 1: their guy. And Shane Waldron, who had I think very
Speaker 1: little history with Matt Abraflus, he was the guy. Well,
Speaker 1: Shane Waldron's been fired as of today, and that's ten
Speaker 1: weeks into the season. He didn't last to Thanksgiving either.
Speaker 1: That's the first year of a contract as well. Both
Speaker 1: of those guys, Getsy and Waldron will be paid out
Speaker 1: the remainder of their contracts. They'll be paid in full.
Speaker 1: They'll be taken care of. They'll be making millions and
Speaker 1: millions of dollars. Kingsbury, who also interviewed with Philadelphia. Ironically
Speaker 1: they went with Kellen Moore. Ironically they're going to be
Speaker 1: the division they're playing Thursday night. Cliff did not get
Speaker 1: offered the job in Philly either. He goes to Washington.
Speaker 1: It all works out. Everyone's happy, and it's great, and
Speaker 1: Jaden's having success. But I go back to how important
Speaker 1: a young quarterback and who you pair him with is. Now,
Speaker 1: would the Raiders offense be sputtering if Cliff Kingsbury was
Speaker 1: with Gardner, Minshew and O'Connell. Maybe would the Bears offense
Speaker 1: be worse with Kingsbury? I doubt it, I really do.
Speaker 1: Would the Washington commanders be just as good with Shane
Speaker 1: Waldron or Luke Etzi. I don't think so. I'm not
Speaker 1: in the business of hiring coaches. I don't know the
Speaker 1: mechanics behind it all. I do know the importance of
Speaker 1: a young quarterback. I do know the importance of a
Speaker 1: good quarterback. Mine. I do know the importance of an
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator, and sometimes I could see it a mile away.
Speaker 1: This one, to me was wild that the Bears didn't
Speaker 1: consider Cliff. It was surprising to me that the Raiders
Speaker 1: thought that they should, you know, have issues with the contract,
Speaker 1: or that Cliff would be okay taking a hometown discount,
Speaker 1: whatever it was, when they had such a giant, voided quarterback.
Speaker 1: So those teams go back to the drawing boards. Cliff
Speaker 1: now is the obviously the offensive coordinator Jayden Daniels. That's
Speaker 1: going well. And I'm not saying Cliff needs to be
Speaker 1: a head coach next year. In fact, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if he's going to be a head coach or
Speaker 1: is gonna get in interviews. I don't, But I know
Speaker 1: he's a good offensive coordinator, and I know those players
Speaker 1: like him, and I know that Commander's offense looks pretty good.
Speaker 1: What's my point. It's sliding doors, it's ships in the night,
Speaker 1: it's all this stuff. But like those decisions, those decisions
Speaker 1: can separate a young quarterback from having great success, and
Speaker 1: a team from having great success from being you know,
Speaker 1: back at the drawing board. And now we're going to
Speaker 1: our second or third or fourth option to run our offense.
Speaker 1: You could say I'm a Kingsbury fanboy. You could say
Speaker 1: what I want, or I'm just taking care of my
Speaker 1: friends and saying this stuff. I genuinely believe he's very
Speaker 1: respected around the league. And I also don't make a
Speaker 1: single dollar off saying that. You know, I'm not bought
Speaker 1: and paid for by anybody. I just cover the league.
Speaker 1: I watch the league, and I think Cliff and Caleb
Speaker 1: would have been a great mix, but that wasn't the
Speaker 1: direction the Bears wanted to go. All right, So that's
Speaker 1: the Bears and their season's not done, but it's going
Speaker 1: the wrong way, and I don't know. Maybe i'm a pessimist.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they suddenly turn it on and
Speaker 1: last year, I'll say it like it is. Last year,
Speaker 1: I thought the Bills were going in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: They fired an offensive coordinator, Joe Brady came in, and
Speaker 1: that team soared all the way to an AFC divisional
Speaker 1: round game where they were hosting it and they won
Speaker 1: the division and the whole thing. So maybe it could happen,
Speaker 1: but I just I don't know. With a rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: and Thomas Brown doesn't have the same pedigree maybe that
Speaker 1: Joe Brady had, who obviously was with LSU and then
Speaker 1: was with the Panthers and had that whole stuff. All Right,
Speaker 1: then there's the Jets, and I want to use the
Speaker 1: next few minutes to address the millions of Jets fans
Speaker 1: out there who a had to sit through Sunday's horrendous
Speaker 1: thirty one to six loss to the Cardinals, and to
Speaker 1: be the thousands of people online who tweet me every
Speaker 1: single day and say that led them astray by telling
Speaker 1: them that the Jets would be the number one seed
Speaker 1: in the AFC and Aaron Rodgers would be MVP this year.
Speaker 1: It was a bad call. It was a horrendous call.
Speaker 1: This is my maya kopa. I'm doing it on November.
Speaker 1: What day is today?
Speaker 2: Er?
Speaker 1: November eight? What do we got? I don't even know.
Speaker 1: Twelfth Tuesday, Tuesday the twelfth, a week after the election,
Speaker 1: when a lot of other people who are paid a
Speaker 1: lot more money than me got a lot of different
Speaker 1: things wrong on television. I will say this, I am sorry.
Speaker 1: I led you astray. If you use my prognostication as
Speaker 1: a as a fuel for optimism and you feel misled.
Speaker 1: I apologize if you use my prognostication to I don't know,
Speaker 1: make a small wager somewhere with one of those companies
Speaker 1: that may or may not sponsor this podcast. I am
Speaker 1: sorry about that. It ain't happening, it's done. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: And yet they still have all these games to play,
Speaker 1: and I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Rogers
Speaker 1: still does McAfee every week for like a long time.
Speaker 1: They still have Rogers under contract, they still have all
Speaker 1: of these veterans that they have signed. Devontae Adams is
Speaker 1: under contract, like they have to. Hey, Sauce Gardner, who's
Speaker 1: having a season that I don't think even in his
Speaker 1: worst nightmares Sauce Gardner would imagine. They have to figure
Speaker 1: out Garrett Wilson's deal. They're gonna have a high draft pick.
Speaker 1: Do they take a quarterback, do they bring back Joe Douglas,
Speaker 1: can he salvage his job? Or is it even in jeopardy?
Speaker 1: I don't even know. Okay, Well, Trump just won the presidency.
Speaker 1: The last time Trump won, Woody Johnson went over to
Speaker 1: the UK and served as the ambassador for the United
Speaker 1: States in the UK for four years and his younger
Speaker 1: brother Christopher ran the team. Is that happening again? The
Speaker 1: Jets are still very interesting. They might not be good,
Speaker 1: they might not be watchable, but they're still very interesting.
Speaker 1: And how the next few weeks play out, and as
Speaker 1: we head towards December when they might be spoilers for
Speaker 1: a lot of teams on the schedule, because you know,
Speaker 1: Rogers is gonna get a few of these squads. You know,
Speaker 1: Rogers is gonna pick and pluck you. They're gonna beat
Speaker 1: one of these teams, like they play the Rams in
Speaker 1: late December. I'm not putting anything out there, but like,
Speaker 1: I feel like that might be a game. They play
Speaker 1: the Seahawks Thanksgiving weekend, Like that might be a game.
Speaker 1: The Jets are gonna be annoying. They're not going anywhere,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna be annoying, and they're gonna win a
Speaker 1: few more games and they're gonna have to finish out
Speaker 1: the string. I am just so interested to see where
Speaker 1: this goes. But I am sorry, and unlike many of
Speaker 1: the political pundits who came out there the day of
Speaker 1: the election and said things were gonna go one way
Speaker 1: and then they didn't and then just hit and turned
Speaker 1: around and moved right along. I'm not I am apologizing.
Speaker 1: I was wrong about the Jets, and I will wear it.
Speaker 1: But I did say the Chiefs were gonna win the AFC,
Speaker 1: and I did say the Packers were gonna win the NFC,
Speaker 1: and I never never have strayed from either of those predictions.
Speaker 1: All Right, we got a really interesting guest on the podcast.
Speaker 1: This is like going to be educational. It's also going
Speaker 1: to be kind of enlightening how it all goes down
Speaker 1: when it comes to flex scheduling. Annie Bose from the NFL,
Speaker 1: who is in the group that deals with schedules but
Speaker 1: also how they flex and which networks get which games.
Speaker 1: Over the next few weeks, he's going to join us
Speaker 1: and I'm looking forward to it. Our guest today is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite people at the NFL League office.
Speaker 1: I actually think his job might be the coolest of
Speaker 1: all the jobs at the league because he has a
Speaker 1: major role and plays a major hand in how we
Speaker 1: consume the game on Thursdays, Sundays, on Mondays, and even
Speaker 1: Saturdays and Wednesdays. This year, his title is the NFL
Speaker 1: Vice President of Broadcasting. But I almost wanted to bring
Speaker 1: him on for a tutorial on how the schedule can
Speaker 1: change over the next few weeks. He's a pal of mine.
Speaker 1: I think you're really going to enjoy him. Everybody, let's
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast, mister Annie Bow's Annie. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the season with Peter Schrager.
Speaker 3: Thanks Peter, appreciate that very kind and fun introduction. Always
Speaker 3: love coming on with you guys on TV after the
Speaker 3: schedule comes out in April or may so love being
Speaker 3: on your podcast and looking forward to this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this podcast is a little bit in the weeds.
Speaker 1: I often say we will have head coaches, but we'll
Speaker 1: also have like offensive line coaches, and we will have players.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's the best story. It's the kicker from
Speaker 1: the Lions who was selling bricks over the summer, like
Speaker 1: as opposed to having Matthew Stafford. And I take pride
Speaker 1: in that. Now, this topic that I want to get
Speaker 1: into with you is more than just the NFL's schedule release.
Speaker 1: It is flex scheduling. I think a lot of us
Speaker 1: look to flex schedule. We have no idea when we're
Speaker 1: going to find it out, We have no idea the rules,
Speaker 1: and I thought it would be cool to bring you
Speaker 1: on as we have now eight weeks left in the
Speaker 1: regular season to kind of go through flex scheduling, who
Speaker 1: can do what, when we can do it, and what
Speaker 1: we can anticipate. And as part of your job, if
Speaker 1: you could just give the listeners your role. If you
Speaker 1: were to say in an elevator speech, you meet somebody
Speaker 1: at a conference and they said, annie, Bo's good to
Speaker 1: meet you. I work at the NFL, how would you
Speaker 1: sum up your job and your day to day duties
Speaker 1: in season?
Speaker 3: Sure? First of all, you and I love this stuff,
Speaker 3: so we can go deep into the weeds. It's always fun.
Speaker 3: I can talk about this forever. So part of that
Speaker 3: elevator pitch is that that you know, people love talking
Speaker 3: about the NFL, and I love talking to them about it. So,
Speaker 3: you know, my job, my day to day job. I
Speaker 3: really oversee our relationships with our live game partners. I
Speaker 3: used to say TV partners, but some of them aren't
Speaker 3: TV anymore. But you know, so really managing the relationships
Speaker 3: with Fox, CBS, ESPN, NBC, Amazon, YouTube. Now you know
Speaker 3: the day to day of what the game looks on
Speaker 3: TV looks like on TV from where they're putting cameras
Speaker 3: out to you know, can we get interviews with players
Speaker 3: before the game and everything else that goes into it.
Speaker 3: It's a really fun thing that I feel pretty fortunate
Speaker 3: to get to be a part of. And then, as
Speaker 3: you alluded to, you know, a smaller group of our
Speaker 3: broader broadcasting team, we are the ones who make the
Speaker 3: NFL schedule and that's just a infinitely fascinating, challenging and
Speaker 3: cool thing to get to do. And my realization is
Speaker 3: that people love to talk about it. They love to
Speaker 3: talk about it in May, they love to talk about
Speaker 3: it now here in November. And feel very fortunate to
Speaker 3: really be a part of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and now we're at the point where flex scheduling
Speaker 1: window is open. We've already seen two different primetime games
Speaker 1: be flex. We've seen now a Vikings Colts game be
Speaker 1: flex into primetime instead of Jaguars Eagles, and Jets Colts
Speaker 1: was moved back down to the day window. And this
Speaker 1: weekend we have a really cool and I said it
Speaker 1: in the lead, it might not be a Ratings monster,
Speaker 1: but a really cool and significant Bengals Chargers Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: justin Herbert match up. I want to ask you, could
Speaker 1: you take us through the flex process, how it's decided,
Speaker 1: who decides it, and how it is determined and when
Speaker 1: in the NFL schedule.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And you know you captured the two Sunday
Speaker 3: night games. We flexed one other note, just you know,
Speaker 3: interesting for us. We moved a Bears commander's game a
Speaker 3: few weeks ago from an early to a late window
Speaker 3: just to kind of capture that attention. And obviously we
Speaker 3: know what happened in that game, but you know, that
Speaker 3: attention on the first two picks in the draft and
Speaker 3: those two young quarterbacks, it's an opportunity. We had to
Speaker 3: put that into a bigger window too. So I think
Speaker 3: what that gets at is that you know, we're always
Speaker 3: looking when we make the schedule in May, and then
Speaker 3: you know we have certain tools in place. Now let's
Speaker 3: make sure we can get the most interesting, the biggest
Speaker 3: games into those windows where most more of our fans
Speaker 3: can see them. And we put a lot of time
Speaker 3: and effort to that in May, and then you can't.
Speaker 3: You know, your crystal ball is never perfect. It's usually
Speaker 3: pretty cloudy. And now we have the opportunity and a
Speaker 3: lot of tools in our toolbox to games into other places.
Speaker 3: So you know, to answer your question, ultimately, as we say, right,
Speaker 3: all scheduling decisions are ultimately made by the Commissioner of
Speaker 3: the NFL. But our job is to kind of be
Speaker 3: in the weeds, do the research, make recommendations to him.
Speaker 3: And with that goal of just make let's make sure
Speaker 3: as the season evolves, let's make sure that you know,
Speaker 3: we're not going to flex a game just speak, for
Speaker 3: the opportunity to get to quote unquote a better game.
Speaker 3: But if a primetime game and we've had Sunday night
Speaker 3: flex for a long time now really falls apart due
Speaker 3: to kind of injuries or just teams really not hitting
Speaker 3: our you know, expectation, and really both teams we have
Speaker 3: that opportunity to flex. But the other core piece of
Speaker 3: that too is we really look at what are the
Speaker 3: teams who we didn't think about in May who have
Speaker 3: played their way on so to speak, whether that's into
Speaker 3: primetime or in the Bears commanders into a four to
Speaker 3: twenty five window. Let's really use those opportunities to do that.
Speaker 3: And so the two games you reference, right, the Vikings cults.
Speaker 3: There cults at Vikings game. Right, you know, at the
Speaker 3: time when we made that decision. The vikings were five
Speaker 3: and zero and it was like, we don't have a
Speaker 3: lot of prime time for them. We didn't really know
Speaker 3: what to expect, and it was a great opportunity to
Speaker 3: move them in there. And you know, again, you know,
Speaker 3: it reflects on the game that was scheduled, and we
Speaker 3: don't try to dwell on that, but what's our opportunity
Speaker 3: And we'll look and the Commissioner himself will challenge us,
Speaker 3: you know, what are the opportunities over the next few
Speaker 3: weeks for the teams we didn't expect so on our radar,
Speaker 3: you know, the Falcons at some point Denver at Arizona,
Speaker 3: now right, where are the opportunities to you know, could
Speaker 3: we flex if we have situations where we want to flex,
Speaker 3: or can we get them wider distribution at one o'clock
Speaker 3: or four o'clock. So we're always thinking about those things,
Speaker 3: and we were generally meeting with the Commissioner on a
Speaker 3: weekly basis looking ahead over the next few weeks. What
Speaker 3: are our opportunities?
Speaker 1: Are there protection rules like could Fox and CBS, who
Speaker 1: have these two windows in the daytime, say hey, hey,
Speaker 1: primetime doesn't take prior to it, we pay our money too, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know the Jets and the CBS bosses probably aren't
Speaker 1: crying over losing Bengals Chargers this week because they have
Speaker 1: that Bills a game and they also have that Raven
Speaker 1: Steelers game. So what are the protections and are there
Speaker 1: rules in place? Is it written or is it just
Speaker 1: kind of we're going to talk it out.
Speaker 3: No, there's some pretty you know, well established rules. And
Speaker 3: as you imagine when we do TV deals and you know,
Speaker 3: everybody wants to protect the value of what what are
Speaker 3: we getting, what's our package and things like that and
Speaker 3: one hundred percent right right, you know, the four twenty
Speaker 3: five window is really our traditionally biggest fewed windows, so
Speaker 3: you know, we have to be very mindful of that,
Speaker 3: and we also want to make sure we've got strong
Speaker 3: games at one o'clock. You know, you're going to see
Speaker 3: your home team if you're in that market, But if
Speaker 3: you don't have a game, or you don't live in
Speaker 3: an NFL market, we want to get you a great game.
Speaker 3: We want Baltimore Pittsburgh to go pretty wide. It's a
Speaker 3: huge game this weekend. So CBS and Fox, do you
Speaker 3: get to protect the game. There's some other factors in
Speaker 3: there too, where you know, one end of the divisional
Speaker 3: games series are always going to be on there, So
Speaker 3: there's a bunch of factors in play. So Baltimore Pittsburgh
Speaker 3: for example, you know, uh, of course they protected KSE Buffalo,
Speaker 3: but Baltimore Pittsburgh also because they have to get one
Speaker 3: end of that was not a game we were necessarily
Speaker 3: going to get into. But you know, you said it
Speaker 3: at the top, you know, when we were looking at
Speaker 3: that and what are the Jets and Colts and what
Speaker 3: decision we're going to make? You know, the Bengals Chargers
Speaker 3: is a great example of you know, here's a couple
Speaker 3: of teams. You know, the Bengals are are you know,
Speaker 3: frisky and playing well, and they're exciting and interesting, you know,
Speaker 3: a whole bunch of kind of tough end of the
Speaker 3: game losses, but an interesting team the Chargers in year
Speaker 3: one under Jim Harbaugh, you know, really interesting. And then
Speaker 3: just at the most kind of basic level, Burrow versus
Speaker 3: Herb it feels like a fun game. You know, you
Speaker 3: expect that to be something, so that really plays a
Speaker 3: big factor in that decision one, is this a game
Speaker 3: we're going to flex out of and two where are
Speaker 3: we going to go? And we really felt really good
Speaker 3: about that decision.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Cincinnati fans were buying flights and
Speaker 1: then said, okay, well I'm going to get out that
Speaker 1: and I like that. Stuff always comes up. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: usually on the same day. It gets a little tricky
Speaker 1: when games are flexed to Monday night, are they Do
Speaker 1: you have a bigger lead up time for when you're
Speaker 1: flexing a Monday night game than a Sunday game.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know, look, and it's a great point, Peter.
Speaker 3: We don't take this lately. We know that fans make
Speaker 3: their plans and and you know, flex Sunday night to
Speaker 3: Sunday afternoon and vice versa. Flex has happened for a
Speaker 3: long time. You know, Monday night flex is something it
Speaker 3: was new last year. It came into play with the
Speaker 3: new TV contracts. It's something that was important as an
Speaker 3: opportunity for ESPN. It's only later in the season. Okay,
Speaker 3: I want to I want to say, I think it's
Speaker 3: week twelve and onward, so where there's a little more
Speaker 3: leeway on NBC, It's it's not a ton but you know,
Speaker 3: we kind of talk about early in late season flex.
Speaker 3: But you know, we focus at the end of the
Speaker 3: year kind of right before and Thanksgiving through it's that
Speaker 3: playoff run and let's really make sure those games that
Speaker 3: matter have that opportunity. So you know, Sunday nights early
Speaker 3: in the season, we make those flex decisions on two
Speaker 3: weeks notice. That's why you knew about this two weeks notice. Okay,
Speaker 3: Bengals Chargers game. Same for Monday Night. All Monday Night
Speaker 3: games are on two weeks notice. As we get later
Speaker 3: into the season forwards, the last couple weeks of the season,
Speaker 3: we can do Sunday Night on one week notice, but
Speaker 3: we do you know, we're very cognizant of the impact
Speaker 3: on fans and so we don't take that lightly. And
Speaker 3: so yes, for Monday Night game to flex, it would
Speaker 3: be done two weeks out. We did have one last year.
Speaker 3: We got out of that Casey New England game right
Speaker 3: and we went into Eagles Seahawks. So you know, again,
Speaker 3: not something that we're gonna do on a whim, but
Speaker 3: you know, at the right place is let's ship those
Speaker 3: games around and do them when it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the Monday night schedule Houston at Dallas you're
Speaker 1: not flexing out of that. It's Dallas. Houston's is still
Speaker 1: relevant obviously. Baltimore at Chargers, you're not flexing out of that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Cleveland at Denver, Denver, let's watch air playoff team. The
Speaker 1: one that gets interesting is this is this week fourteen,
Speaker 1: December ninth, Bengals at Cowboys, where both teams could be
Speaker 1: out of it. One of the teams could be out
Speaker 1: of it. We don't have Dak Prescott anymore. And the
Speaker 1: debate is would they ever flex out of a Disney
Speaker 1: ESPN ABC Cowboys game. I'll put you to the put
Speaker 1: the screws to you on this one. I think the
Speaker 1: brand does matter a little bit for these companies, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Look a couple things. First of all, right, you
Speaker 3: know new for ESPN was the ability to get a
Speaker 3: couple of teams twice a year over the last few years,
Speaker 3: again part of the new deal. So they got, you know,
Speaker 3: no surprise to two Chiefs games, two Cowboys games. These
Speaker 3: mean these games mean a ton to them. You know,
Speaker 3: we never say never, And look, I think from our
Speaker 3: point of view, the Bengals are still right there in it.
Speaker 3: The AFC could be in for a crazy finish we're
Speaker 3: talking this morning about after last night. You know, the
Speaker 3: Dolphins are still in it, right, you know, any any
Speaker 3: turn of events, so you know, we don't think about
Speaker 3: that game. Just ride the Bengals. You don't know, you
Speaker 3: know where the Cowboys going to be in two three weeks.
Speaker 3: You know they're not that far out of it, yes,
Speaker 3: injuries and everything else, so you know, we're not looking
Speaker 3: at that game. And again generally, we're always going to
Speaker 3: look at the games and you know, what are the positives,
Speaker 3: what are the reasons to stay? But you know, as
Speaker 3: you mentioned right, you know that the Cowboys games are
Speaker 3: something that whenever they show up on those schedules, are
Speaker 3: are pretty meaningful.
Speaker 1: Okay, So then we didn't get any last year, and
Speaker 1: there was a big hubbub over it in the media
Speaker 1: and a lot of players speaking their minds about Thursday
Speaker 1: night games being flex and how how could they do
Speaker 1: that at such a money grabbing and then you you
Speaker 1: didn't even utilize it last year. That's a big difference.
Speaker 1: I think when you think you have a game on
Speaker 1: a Sunday and you're like, no, actually you have a
Speaker 1: game on a Thursday, are you guys a little bit more? Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it has to be a terrible matchup
Speaker 1: for you to even consider that.
Speaker 3: A couple of things here and again to your point, right, so,
Speaker 3: going from Sunday to a Monday certainly impactful. Going from
Speaker 3: a Thursday to a Sunday, when you know, kind of
Speaker 3: weekday to a weekend. We again we recognized that, and
Speaker 3: you know, getting to Thursday Night Flex was a was
Speaker 3: a you know, pretty detailed conversation, and you know, to
Speaker 3: the point you made at the top, you know, kind
Speaker 3: of what are the factors and the rules around it,
Speaker 3: Thursday Night flex is even more complicated and even more
Speaker 3: not taking it lightly. So couple of things. One as
Speaker 3: part of kind of the agreement to do this, and
Speaker 3: it's completely new and it came in last year. So
Speaker 3: two years ago we didn't even have Monday Night flex.
Speaker 3: Last year we added Monday night flex by contract, by
Speaker 3: Thursday Night Flex by kind of discussion and you know,
Speaker 3: basically the rule kind of the approaches we'd have to
Speaker 3: do that four weeks out. So give your four the other.
Speaker 1: Ones out four weeks. Okay, that's very interesting.
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, but the other piece to really keep
Speaker 3: in mind is, you know, Thursday nights are very you know,
Speaker 3: obviously limited. There's a lot of rules. It used to be,
Speaker 3: you know, no one could play more than one short
Speaker 3: week Thursday. We've modified that. We got to a place
Speaker 3: where you can play, you can play two short week Thursdays,
Speaker 3: and the teams have you know, really adapted to that,
Speaker 3: but no more than two. And one of those things
Speaker 3: is you're not going to play two road Thursdays. So
Speaker 3: once you factor all that in, and you know, if
Speaker 3: you looked at a game on a Thursday night to
Speaker 3: ask yourself, could we you know, would the NFL flex
Speaker 3: that game? You have to layer in all these other
Speaker 3: factors that even the game you want to get to,
Speaker 3: have those teams already played one or both of them
Speaker 3: played there two thursdays, Has one of them already played
Speaker 3: a road Thursday. There's a lot of you know, kind
Speaker 3: of limiting factors in there. So you know, again, don't
Speaker 3: take any flex decision lightly, but a Thursday one is
Speaker 3: even more complicated.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm looking at the Thursday night schedule, obviously that's
Speaker 1: a beauty. This week, Washington at Philadelphia might be the
Speaker 1: game of the week in the NFC YE Pittsburgh at
Speaker 1: Cleveland's a divisional battle with Pittsburgh could be either seven
Speaker 1: and three or eight and two. You're not changing that.
Speaker 1: Raiders at Chiefs. Raiders beat the Chiefs last year on
Speaker 1: Christmas in Arrowhead, so you're not changing that. Hackers at
Speaker 1: Lions is awesome. Rams at Niners is one of the
Speaker 1: great rivalries in the league. Cleveland at Cincinnati is a
Speaker 1: little ugly, and it could be ugly since izs, But like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, four weeks out, you would call Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow's team the last week of the season in what
Speaker 1: looks like could be a dog will be one to
Speaker 1: Seattle at Chicago, but you still have Caleb Williams in
Speaker 1: that game, and Seattle might be in the playoff, right, Like.
Speaker 3: Both are right, That's right, And that's how we're always
Speaker 3: going to look at it.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: We're gonna be mindful of what's coming down the road,
Speaker 3: but we're also going to be you know, we believe
Speaker 3: in all our teams that we're going to be optimistic.
Speaker 3: And so I don't think anybody's sitting here saying like, yeah,
Speaker 3: we're circling any one of these games on any night
Speaker 3: of the week is like, yeah, we we have to
Speaker 3: you know, death definitively flex out of anything.
Speaker 1: At that point, the Jets got a lot of primetime games,
Speaker 1: and now in hindsight, everyone's like, ah, we had too many.
Speaker 1: We fell forward again. It was a second year in
Speaker 1: a row. But like, is that a team that you
Speaker 1: would ever flex out of? I feel like when they're good,
Speaker 1: it's it's when they're fun to watch, and then like
Speaker 1: if they're bad, like there are people that like watching them.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at these here. You've got all these different
Speaker 1: primetime games, but they've already a lot of them have
Speaker 1: been played. You played five primetime games in the twenty ten,
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, and twenty three season. This year they got
Speaker 1: a record high six, Like the Jets. When you came
Speaker 1: into this thing, obviously you thought a better season was ahead.
Speaker 1: But even when they're.
Speaker 3: We listened to your your scouting reports.
Speaker 1: I trusting, But even when they're bad, their theater, right
Speaker 1: or people just own that.
Speaker 3: No, Look, I put it yourself in our position right
Speaker 3: when for going into the twenty three season, all the
Speaker 3: excitement about Aaron coming to the Jets, and they had
Speaker 3: great opponents, right, if you go back and look, you know,
Speaker 3: fantastic opponents, and even you know, three plays in and
Speaker 3: he's out for the year. They still got great viewership
Speaker 3: and that team, you know, was there. So when when
Speaker 3: we look at this year, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 3: it's the Jets. You know, how are you going to
Speaker 3: look at that? How are you going to approach it?
Speaker 3: They still have strong opponents the division. You know, we
Speaker 3: expected it to be competitive, and I think we went
Speaker 3: into it saying, you know, there there's just an opportunity,
Speaker 3: and you're not gonna kind of forego that opportunity. And
Speaker 3: that's the way we looked at it. And yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: we flexed out of that game for this current week.
Speaker 3: But you know, overall, the way we approached it in May,
Speaker 3: I think we had to and when we listened to
Speaker 3: the who believe in the Jets, and when the Jets
Speaker 3: are good, it's it's fun and and that's a big thing,
Speaker 3: you know, and attracts a lot of attention Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 3: or any other quarterback. I think, you know, when when
Speaker 3: the Jets and and the story around them and everything else,
Speaker 3: and there was a lot of optimism there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they won their two Thursday night games on
Speaker 1: Amazon and Primetime, and they lost the two Monday night
Speaker 1: games they lost the Niners. Those of the Bills they
Speaker 1: have two others? Are those am I missing one? Did
Speaker 1: they play Sunday night yet? Or are those two?
Speaker 3: Well? I think we just we flexed the Sunday night game.
Speaker 1: Okay, so there's probably one more as the season.
Speaker 3: Somewhere out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so then we have a flex here. Is
Speaker 1: there any personal gratification when like those games that you
Speaker 1: flex into on primetime like actually end up being better
Speaker 1: games and more competitive, And to me, it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: if we're gonna go through all this trouble, it better
Speaker 1: actually work out.
Speaker 3: Sure. I mean, look, in general, I think, you know,
Speaker 3: we love to kind of you know, when I when
Speaker 3: a game like this past Sunday, What a great fun game,
Speaker 3: and I left my hotel in UNI at halftime, and
Speaker 3: you know, the Texans were dominating by the time I
Speaker 3: got through security. I pulled it up on my phone
Speaker 3: and I was seeing in the end. So yeah, we
Speaker 3: love that. Look, when it comes down to it, ultimately,
Speaker 3: we're fans too, right, We we love to see great
Speaker 3: football and things like that. So whether it's a you know,
Speaker 3: kind of Lions Texans that felt like such a cool
Speaker 3: game last May and two teams on the rise and
Speaker 3: you get that great game, or yes, if you flex
Speaker 3: into a game and it really delivers and what you
Speaker 3: hope for sure, you feel good about that. But you know,
Speaker 3: things that are way out of our control. But we
Speaker 3: try to be smart, we try to make decisions. And
Speaker 3: like I said, we're fans too, So what do our
Speaker 3: fans want to see? That's what we want to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is the rules of the divisional matchup? Because
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of cool in viewers at home
Speaker 1: and listeners at home might know. So CBS, we'll get
Speaker 1: at least one of every AFC divisional matchup, meaning they're
Speaker 1: going to at least get a Jets, Bills, They're going
Speaker 1: to at least get the Colts, Titans, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: And then and Fox on the NFC side, so you'll
Speaker 1: never see you know, Niners Rams on primetime twice, or
Speaker 1: you'll never see Cowboys Eagles on primetime twice. Fox is
Speaker 1: always guaranteed at least one of the divisional matchups.
Speaker 3: Right, that's how we go into it. Scheduling, Right, I
Speaker 3: think there's been a lot of talk about kind of
Speaker 3: in the new thing, you got Chiefs at Niners on Fox. Right,
Speaker 3: kind of a classic? You know, huge AFC is the
Speaker 3: road team game that would have been the centerpiece.
Speaker 1: Of a CBS game when the NFC team is on
Speaker 1: the road at AFC.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, and so we have that flexibility. You know,
Speaker 3: the CBS is going to get X number of Chiefs games,
Speaker 3: but it doesn't have to be just because they're the
Speaker 3: road team, and we can do something cool like that,
Speaker 3: or Eagles at Cowboys on CBS this past weekend. We
Speaker 3: can do that too. But both Fox and CBS, it's
Speaker 3: very important still to be the identity that we are
Speaker 3: the network of the NFC and the network of the AFC.
Speaker 3: And so one of the ways they do that is
Speaker 3: every one of those divisional matchups, at least one of
Speaker 3: them is going to be on our network, and that
Speaker 3: was very important to them.
Speaker 1: Okay, so then sorry for the thirty questions. You know,
Speaker 1: I love this stuff. So Cowboys Eagles gets the big window.
Speaker 1: Obviously we didn't know DAK would be out on CBS,
Speaker 1: but that means, no matter what, the next Cowboys Eagles
Speaker 1: game will not be on prime time because Fox has
Speaker 1: to get one of those.
Speaker 3: Right, That's right. And that's I think it's week seventeen
Speaker 3: maybe cool, yep. And those are you know, some of
Speaker 3: those huge divisional matchups or some of the first pieces
Speaker 3: on the proverbial chessboard, and we look at those things.
Speaker 3: And then when you have a division like the NFC
Speaker 3: North this year, you know, it's really cool when almost
Speaker 3: every combination of those games are pretty interesting. Right now, Yeah,
Speaker 3: we have.
Speaker 1: A real rarity this weekend in the four o'clock window,
Speaker 1: if we want to get in the weeds. CBS has
Speaker 1: just one game and they're sending their pregame show, which
Speaker 1: by the way, is on at twelve pm, four hours
Speaker 1: before kickoff, which I think is a major commitment. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of times you watch you know, Fox's big
Speaker 1: noon kickoff, it's because it's right into the game. Or
Speaker 1: college game day is one where they have to actually
Speaker 1: wait till the kickoff. But you got CBS is sending
Speaker 1: their pregame show to Buffalo to Orchard Park. I still
Speaker 1: call it rich Stadium. That's very old. But yes, they'll
Speaker 1: be there and it's the only game on CBS in
Speaker 1: the four o'clock window. Did they have to work that
Speaker 1: out with you guys? Did they negotiate with you with that.
Speaker 1: Is that because of the flex situation? I think it's
Speaker 1: still very rare to have a lone game on a
Speaker 1: network in a window. Correct.
Speaker 3: Yeah, First of all, let's let's just talk about for
Speaker 3: a second, a noon pregame show outside the stadium. You
Speaker 3: think they're gonna have a pretty good crowd out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, and we don't see that anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm a historian on this stuff. Fox used to for
Speaker 1: one year. For one year, Fox I think it was seven,
Speaker 1: sent the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show to home sites
Speaker 1: of games and they traveled and Joe Buck actually hosted
Speaker 1: the show and then went in the booth and would
Speaker 1: be the announcer. That feels like a distant memory the NFL.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the original Kirk Curbsheet.
Speaker 1: He was before the Private Jets and all that. He
Speaker 1: was there just walking up to the booth. Yeah. But honestly,
Speaker 1: I think this is pretty rare that they're doing this.
Speaker 1: Was Was it always known this was the only game
Speaker 1: in the window or is that because of the flex
Speaker 1: of Bengals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, No, you're you're hitting a spot on right as
Speaker 3: scheduled back in May Cincinnati Chargers was in that window
Speaker 3: as well. So it's it's you know, it's it's somewhere
Speaker 3: between uncommon and rare. It happens, and you look, if
Speaker 3: there's any game that can stand alone right now at
Speaker 3: four twenty five and you know, talk about do you
Speaker 3: feel good or excited. Let's hope the game lives up
Speaker 3: to it. But nine to zero Chiefs going to eight
Speaker 3: and two Buffalo and feeling like this might determine who's
Speaker 3: hosting that game at the end of January. Everything we
Speaker 3: could hope for. We look at a game like this
Speaker 3: and try to figure out where do you play it.
Speaker 3: You don't want to play it too early, you don't
Speaker 3: want to play it too late. Week eleven feels perfect
Speaker 3: right now, so we'll you know, we hope it delivers.
Speaker 3: But so you know that it stands alone. You know,
Speaker 3: it happens. Sometimes it's absolutely a function of the flex
Speaker 3: this particular week, and you know, let's hope it lives
Speaker 3: up to all that.
Speaker 1: I had a really, really like good conversation with Kyle
Speaker 1: Brandt offline when we were in the commercial break today
Speaker 1: of like Keon Coleman, Amari Cooper, Dalton, Kincaid All these
Speaker 1: guys are banged up, and then they've got the bye
Speaker 1: week next week. It's the classic do you do you
Speaker 1: arrest them or do you go I'm like for us
Speaker 1: to be talking that way about a week eleven game
Speaker 1: as if it's you know, so, I think it does
Speaker 1: have those high stakes though.
Speaker 3: Absolutely right. I mean, I think you can very clearly
Speaker 3: kind of say, you know, if you whoever wins this game.
Speaker 3: Obviously it's two game separation right now, but a long
Speaker 3: way to go. But just is that the tiebreaker for
Speaker 3: the number one seed. That's that's very much in play
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 1: Before we wrap, I want to go through just the
Speaker 1: holiday times schedule because there's a couple of little wrinkles here.
Speaker 1: We've got three Thanksgiving games, we have a Black Friday game,
Speaker 1: then we have a Christmas Day game, but I think
Speaker 1: the week before Christmas is like those teams have to
Speaker 1: play on Saturdays. Let's first go through Thanksgiving slate. What
Speaker 1: are the three games on Thanksgiving? And do you guys
Speaker 1: put a lot of weight into those matchups before the
Speaker 1: season or is that just hey, put a divisional matchup
Speaker 1: against one of the teams then will take you know,
Speaker 1: we'll take our shots at the other spots.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, Thanksgiving is a really interesting one for us
Speaker 3: where you know, I think we've seen right just the
Speaker 3: way it is such a part of the cultural fabric,
Speaker 3: right those games, you know, the the Detroit and then
Speaker 3: love now with just how exciting and fun the Lions are.
Speaker 3: But even you know, over the years, right that game,
Speaker 3: you know, twenty five thirty million viewers, and the Cowboys
Speaker 3: game thirty five forty million viewers. So there's a lot
Speaker 3: of schools of thought there of like, you know, could
Speaker 3: you put any game in there? Should we put a
Speaker 3: huge game in there? And we debate that a lot,
Speaker 3: and our network partners have a lot of feelings about it.
Speaker 3: But you know, Chicago and Detroit Giants in Dallas, you know,
Speaker 3: classic Division games, and you know, you just feel like
Speaker 3: you know, they're they they're going to be up for
Speaker 3: that game. They're going to be competitive, and you know
Speaker 3: we we love that. And you know, back in May
Speaker 3: we Miami at Green Bay again, you know, Lambeau on
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving feels fun and Dolphins coming off a win last night,
Speaker 3: like I said earlier, right, they could be right back
Speaker 3: in the way the AFC is. So you know, you know,
Speaker 3: you know, we try to find that balance of like,
Speaker 3: do you have to put the absolute biggest games on there?
Speaker 3: You know, probably not. There's a really strong just built
Speaker 3: in you know, yeah, built in you're with your family,
Speaker 3: you're watching, but you want them to be meaningful and
Speaker 3: feel good about them. Back in May when you have
Speaker 3: to make these decisions.
Speaker 1: And then the next day the Friday. We brought this
Speaker 1: out last year, and I could tell you from my sources,
Speaker 1: the Jets would have loved to have had that be
Speaker 1: like a Cowboys or Lions Thanksgiving thing. Jets would have
Speaker 1: loved to have had Black Friday. Every take the Macy's
Speaker 1: Day parade crowd, tell them to stay, hang out a bit,
Speaker 1: but you guys said, thank you for your service. We're
Speaker 1: gonna move right along and we'll give this to Kansas City.
Speaker 1: So that game's an arrowhead on a Friday. And what's
Speaker 1: that game?
Speaker 3: Yeah, same thing, right, Starting something new and you know,
Speaker 3: going into a completely new window last year was a
Speaker 3: lot to kind of contemplate. And you know, Miami and
Speaker 3: the Jets again, back when we made that decision Division
Speaker 3: game at the time, thinking Aaron was going to be
Speaker 3: playing felt big in the New York market. The parade,
Speaker 3: everything about it, and you know had to really understand,
Speaker 3: you know, what's three o'clock on Black Friday, Like, there
Speaker 3: was just no comparable to you know, what the viewership
Speaker 3: was going to be. And it's still early, right, We're
Speaker 3: still trying to build a tradition. And so you know,
Speaker 3: in the same way that we went, you know with
Speaker 3: the Jets, with the Dolphins, you know, kind of all right,
Speaker 3: let's go as epic of a place in the league
Speaker 3: as there is right now. Let's go to Arrowhead. Let's
Speaker 3: see what that's going to be, you know, and again,
Speaker 3: you know, matchup wise and everything else. No matter who
Speaker 3: the Raiders are, they're going to take a lot of
Speaker 3: prodown play that team. And we play back to the
Speaker 3: Christmas Day game last year and there was a lot there,
Speaker 3: and so you know, we fully expect that to be
Speaker 3: a competitive game. And you know, the Chiefs aren't blowing
Speaker 3: anyone out right now, so a competitive football game on
Speaker 3: Black Friday should be a fun thing.
Speaker 1: Sure. And then we get to those Christmas games which
Speaker 1: are on Netflix. There are two of them, and I'm
Speaker 1: looking at it now, it looks like it's the AFC Semifinals,
Speaker 1: Like it's it's crazy. If you take Buffalo out of
Speaker 1: the equation. You start off with a Pittsburgh Steelers team
Speaker 1: that's maybe the best story in football right now hosting
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Chiefs, and then at night you have
Speaker 1: Texans Ravens. Two great games. That one's in Houston. What
Speaker 1: was the ruling with that? Those teams? Then if they're
Speaker 1: playing on a Wednesday, they couldn't play on the Sunday
Speaker 1: from the previous week, so they both play on Saturday.
Speaker 1: All four of them play on Saturdays. How's that work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So this was one that was really interesting to
Speaker 3: figure out, right just intuitively, and like, oh, the Athol's
Speaker 3: not going to play on a Wednesday. You know, that's
Speaker 3: just it doesn't happen. And you're right, it doesn't happen.
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know what the stat is. We
Speaker 3: haven't scheduled a Wednesday game in decades, you know. But
Speaker 3: you know, look at the success we've had on Christmas
Speaker 3: the last few years, you know, last year kind of
Speaker 3: I think, averaging twenty six twenty seven million across those
Speaker 3: those windows. And I think what our learning is Christmas
Speaker 3: is another day like Thanksgiving, where you're with your families,
Speaker 3: you know, whether you celebrate or not, it's everybody. You know,
Speaker 3: it's a holiday, and there's a all built in market.
Speaker 3: So the challenge to us from the commissioner was, how
Speaker 3: are we going to figure this out? So you're right,
Speaker 3: you can't play Sunday to Wednesday. You know, there's a
Speaker 3: minimum amount of rest required between games. But Saturday to
Speaker 3: Wednesday is the same as Sunday to Thursday. So this
Speaker 3: just becomes one of those those four teams. This is
Speaker 3: one of their short week Thursdays, and so that's that
Speaker 3: excuse me, short week, short weeks, right, So it's just
Speaker 3: a short week on a Wednesday, but Saturday to Wednesday
Speaker 3: is doable. And then we had to find four teams
Speaker 3: who played each other in a combination so that we
Speaker 3: could get to those games. Right. So you you mentioned
Speaker 3: the matchups on Christmas are fantastic, awesome, and then the
Speaker 3: previous Saturday, we're playing one o'clock on NBC Houston at
Speaker 3: Kansas City, pretty great game, Pittsburgh and Baltimore on Fox
Speaker 3: at four thirty. And so we really liked that combination
Speaker 3: back in April, and may we really like it now
Speaker 3: here in November, talking about four teams who are just
Speaker 3: all over it. And so that was, you know, and
Speaker 3: this is the kind of the what the scheduling team
Speaker 3: is challenged with. And there were maybe one or two
Speaker 3: other combinations of four teams that we could have gotten to,
Speaker 3: but that we got to this and that where we're
Speaker 3: sitting right now, you feel, you know, you're pretty psyched
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And there was a ton of promotion into the
Speaker 1: Peacock games on last year, both the regular season and
Speaker 1: the playoffs. There was a ton of promotion this year
Speaker 1: before that ESPN plus Monday Night game like go find
Speaker 1: it Netflix, first time having it. I feel like we've
Speaker 1: seen a lot, hurt a lot in this fight. This
Speaker 1: weekend with Tyson and Paul is gonna, you know, be
Speaker 1: a live event and I'm sure there'll be commercials for it.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the NFL has to like promote
Speaker 1: the hell to that or that's one of those where
Speaker 1: like everyone's got Netflix, they'll turn it on, they'll know
Speaker 1: where to find it.
Speaker 3: Look, I think it's both. Right. We can't take anything
Speaker 3: for granted, right, because I think you can't underestimate kind
Speaker 3: of whether, you know, especially if you're kind of watching
Speaker 3: on cable satellite, just starting at the bottom and just
Speaker 3: clicking up to you find the game, or if you're
Speaker 3: watching on YouTube, TV or Hulu or something, you know,
Speaker 3: they'll surface the game to you. But you cannot take
Speaker 3: for granted that I you know, fans will know, yes,
Speaker 3: this game is on Netflix, like we need to build
Speaker 3: that awareness, and Netflix will build that awareness on their
Speaker 3: own platform. And the most you know, one of the
Speaker 3: interesting things when they first came to us and you know,
Speaker 3: said hey, we'd like to do this is Christmas is
Speaker 3: also their most view day of the year, is what
Speaker 3: they told us.
Speaker 1: So wow, because everyone's on the couch, they're home.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, exactly. So if you want to watch
Speaker 3: the NFL and some great games, great, you're gonna find it.
Speaker 3: If you want to watch whatever else you watch on Netflix,
Speaker 3: but maybe you didn't know what the game was on
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, wow, let me watch Steelers Chiefs.
Speaker 3: So no, look, like I said, we don't.
Speaker 1: Planning on watching sing too. But wait a second, the
Speaker 1: Texans are playing the Ravens. Do you mind? Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: go for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's exactly cool. Yeah, yeah exactly. So you know, look,
Speaker 3: it's it's a cool it's a great opportunity for us.
Speaker 3: They really, you know, we want to to do this
Speaker 3: together and it's a generally kind of a worldwide feed
Speaker 3: and everything else. There's a lot going on there and
Speaker 3: it's been a great kind of working through all this
Speaker 3: to get that launched, and we're excited for what it's
Speaker 3: going to be and Cherry on top. As you said,
Speaker 3: great matchups, great matchups.
Speaker 1: I'll wrap with this. I always tell Mike North this.
Speaker 1: I've told you this, I've pushed it on this podcast
Speaker 1: multiple times. I've told Hans Schroeder this. I think there
Speaker 1: should be a live program at the end of the
Speaker 1: Sunday night game of week eighteen with cameras in the
Speaker 1: executive's office at NBC, Mark Lazarus, I want Eric Shanks,
Speaker 1: I want you know, CBS is David Berson, and ESPN
Speaker 1: I guess right now is either Jimmy Pittaro or Burke Magnus.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure who makes those decisions on their side,
Speaker 1: but I would like cameras on all of these gentlemen
Speaker 1: as they are given their playoff slates and their playoff fates,
Speaker 1: which games they're getting. Is there any chance we can
Speaker 1: get a live selection Sunday feel to the assignments of
Speaker 1: which network gets which games, because I still think it's
Speaker 1: one of the one of the great ideas that it's
Speaker 1: just untapped in our.
Speaker 3: Industry, that is deep, deep into the weeds there, and
Speaker 3: maybe as bonus content you can get a spy on
Speaker 3: our zoom. As we're making those decisions, I will tell
Speaker 3: you that Sunday Night, Week eighteen, Sunday Night is a
Speaker 3: fascinating one, and maybe Week seventeen Sunday Night because everything
Speaker 3: in week eighteen is a black slate, right, that whole
Speaker 3: schedule is TBD, and we're going to sequence Saturday doubleheader
Speaker 3: on ESPN, ABC and then early late and Sunday night,
Speaker 3: trying to build to Sunday Night as a win and
Speaker 3: in game. But nothing at one o'clock is going to
Speaker 3: render four o'clock, you know, meaningless, and nothing on Saturday
Speaker 3: is going to render anything on Sunday meeting list, that's
Speaker 3: a fun day because there's a million things to figure out,
Speaker 3: and we start thinking about that, you know, a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks before Christmas, like what's ahead of us we
Speaker 3: got to be ready for. So those two Sundays a
Speaker 3: lot of decisions to make, but a lot it's fun,
Speaker 3: you know, you talk about the fun part of what
Speaker 3: we do. And to your point, those executives on the
Speaker 3: other end and all the fans, right, what's the matchup
Speaker 3: go down? And you know what's the sequence of wild
Speaker 3: Card weekend? Especially now that we're going across three days.
Speaker 3: It's incredible, It's great.
Speaker 1: Annie. As we wrap, I have so many people who
Speaker 1: email me and say, oh, I've got a kid who's
Speaker 1: a journalism major and wants to do what you do?
Speaker 1: You mind having coffee with them? I am sure you
Speaker 1: get a deluge of emails from people being like my
Speaker 1: son or daughter would love to work for the NFL.
Speaker 1: Sounds like you have a dream job and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: What would be your advice for someone young or not
Speaker 1: even someone young, someone who wants to make a career
Speaker 1: change and get into this world and wants to do
Speaker 1: what we do or and more specifically what you do
Speaker 1: working for the league and working in this capacity. What
Speaker 1: would be your advice to somebody trying to just get
Speaker 1: all the ducks in a row and setting themselves up
Speaker 1: for that opportunity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, first of all, Peter, you and I
Speaker 3: talk about it, like you said, you know, we're buddies
Speaker 3: and we'd like to text and joke about stuff, but
Speaker 3: like we're so lucky. I get it. We are. We
Speaker 3: are blessed, and I I think I'm thankful for that
Speaker 3: every day. And my kids love to tell my wife
Speaker 3: that Dad has to watch football on TV for a living,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, okay, you know, like there there's a
Speaker 3: lot worse things to do, so starting at that point,
Speaker 3: and everybody's got an orange and story and a winding
Speaker 3: road to where they got to. I think just my
Speaker 3: general point of view and advice whether you know, especially
Speaker 3: if you're young, but at any point, like if if
Speaker 3: you if you want to go for it, just just
Speaker 3: be open minded, be willing to kind of do just
Speaker 3: about anything. Right. Not too many people land at the NFL,
Speaker 3: and you know the Roger Goodell story started an intern
Speaker 3: and become the commissioner. But if you get in somewhere
Speaker 3: and you do the work and kind of you know,
Speaker 3: people know you and like you, you just kind of
Speaker 3: build on that and and go from there. And yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, we're super lucky. You're right, you know, people
Speaker 3: kind of reach out to you and you try to
Speaker 3: share your experience. But the big the biggest thing is
Speaker 3: just you know, one if if you have that opportunity,
Speaker 3: unity and you can do it, go for it. But
Speaker 3: just be be open minded. And maybe you don't want
Speaker 3: to work in a certain thing, but if you get
Speaker 3: in the door, you never.
Speaker 1: Know where you go totally. And like I always said,
Speaker 1: everyone like there's no job that's too small. But also
Speaker 1: put yourself out there right, like there's no email you
Speaker 1: can't send, Like I'm sure if you go through your
Speaker 1: emails on you there was a version of me ten, fifteen,
Speaker 1: twenty years ago who probably emailed you like, hey, I'd
Speaker 1: love to get coffee. Can you talk about it? Because
Speaker 1: I know I sent them to Peter O'Reilly for about
Speaker 1: a decade so they do it.
Speaker 3: I'm a little older than you, so it was me
Speaker 3: writing letters to every PR person in every league and
Speaker 3: just you know, whatever, whatever you could take. And then
Speaker 3: all takes is one to respond and you have that
Speaker 3: opportunity and then you got to go make the most
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny. Heye, ta go it. And I
Speaker 1: want to hear your story because I'm sure you have
Speaker 1: someone that you can mention. But I once wrote an
Speaker 1: email probably two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: hours out of college, I was freelance writing and I
Speaker 1: wrote an email because I got his email somehow to
Speaker 1: Jim Nance. And basically I was like writing articles for
Speaker 1: Foxsports dot com or maybe not even maybe I was
Speaker 1: writing for the Free Metro paper in New York. And
Speaker 1: I wrote Jim Dance like email about how I'm from
Speaker 1: New Jersey, You're from New Jersey. I just read the
Speaker 1: book that you wrote about your father, and and that
Speaker 1: started a you know, two three year email correspondence. And
Speaker 1: every time Jim Nance was in New York, he would
Speaker 1: hit me up and say, hey, do you want to
Speaker 1: grab coffee? Like I'd be willing to do it too,
Speaker 1: for some like people do respond. So I always tell
Speaker 1: everyone like, it doesn't hurt to send an email. They
Speaker 1: might not try to take you up on it, but
Speaker 1: someone will.
Speaker 3: Someone will, and that's all it takes. And you know,
Speaker 3: my daughters are seventeen and fifteen, so what you got
Speaker 3: to look forward to it and in a bunch of years,
Speaker 3: but you know, they're great kids and they're going out
Speaker 3: in the world and that just you know, whether it's
Speaker 3: figuravely or literally stick your hand out say hello, you know,
Speaker 3: engage with people that they really you know, like you said,
Speaker 3: some may just it's not you know, it's not the
Speaker 3: right day or time, and somebody may just connect and
Speaker 3: you click and you never know totally.
Speaker 1: All right, this was all Annie Bo's. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: you on a bunch more. This is so fun. I
Speaker 1: feel like we just gave a tutorial to the listeners
Speaker 1: on Fox scheduling. The bottom line is you're gonna get
Speaker 1: as many big games as humanly possible in big windows,
Speaker 1: and we're going to try to keep this thing as
Speaker 1: competitive as possible for the national audiences as the season
Speaker 1: goes on. Annie, I know you're a very busy guy,
Speaker 1: so appreciated and have an amazing next few weeks, including
Speaker 1: these holiday games. I know you're gonna be on the
Speaker 1: road and you just got back from Munich, so it
Speaker 1: means a lot for you to do the podcast with me.
Speaker 3: No, I appreciate it. Peter always enjoy talking to you,
Speaker 3: whether it's offline or on the podcast. So anytime, anytime
Speaker 3: you want, I'm happy to join you. And you know,
Speaker 3: at the bottom line, you and I are fans. In
Speaker 3: these next six to seven eight weeks are going to
Speaker 3: be a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: No doubt. My prediction was Chiefs versus Packers. It's still flickering,
Speaker 1: it's still alive. And I think Fox. I think Fox
Speaker 1: would sign up for a Chiefs Packers super Bowl rehash
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl one. That doesn't sound so bad.
Speaker 3: I think they'd be okay with that. I think the
Speaker 3: Lions are such a fun, awesome story, you know that,
Speaker 3: you know, get Bills and Josh Allen to get there
Speaker 3: would be such a leap.
Speaker 1: So I think, did you imagine real quick? Could you
Speaker 1: imagine the Bills fans and the Lions fans on Bourbon
Speaker 1: Street for a week? I can't. Actually, I think we're
Speaker 1: all gonna melt. Yeah, that's gonna be insane that happens.
Speaker 3: Let's go who knows now, But no matter what, it's
Speaker 3: gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wait, all right, Honnie, thank you, buddy, you gotta beter.
Speaker 3: Thanks appreciate it.
Speaker 1: All right, that's interesting. Honnie Bo's is a great dude.
Speaker 1: He works in that same group as Mike North and
Speaker 1: Hans Schroeder and the NFL's media group. But Aaron I
Speaker 1: thought it was really interesting all of the different rules
Speaker 1: and regulations and all the stuff that the parameters of
Speaker 1: flex scheduling because it's not as easy as well, Sunday
Speaker 1: night gets the best game. Now Fox and CBS they
Speaker 1: pay a lot of money to make sure that they
Speaker 1: get good games in their windows as well.
Speaker 2: I also I didn't realize is the rule of only
Speaker 2: two short weeks, and if you're doing two short weeks,
Speaker 2: only one of them can be a road game.
Speaker 1: There was so much.
Speaker 2: I feel like some of these things I thought I knew,
Speaker 2: and the more he got into it, like we're not
Speaker 2: you know, the Wednesday games. It's okay if they played
Speaker 2: on the Saturday because it's a short week, but not
Speaker 2: on the Sunday. There's a lot more. The more I
Speaker 2: hear about creating the schedule, the more incredibly intricate it becomes.
Speaker 2: And now I understand why they sit in this room
Speaker 2: all off season crafting it with so many different legs
Speaker 2: and webs that weave together.
Speaker 1: The great Howard Katz used to be in charge of
Speaker 1: it and still plays a role. But they say it's
Speaker 1: an art and a science. So like the art of
Speaker 1: it is like the fun stuff of like oh, Chiefs
Speaker 1: play bills this weekend. The science of it is, Yes,
Speaker 1: Chiefs play bill this weekend, but because we got a
Speaker 1: flex of Chargers versus Bengals, we can now make it
Speaker 1: the sole game. And if it's a sole game, and
Speaker 1: let's end our pregame show like it's pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by it. In another life, I would be
Speaker 1: doing what Annie does. I find it really cool what
Speaker 1: they do, and they've got great relationships and they also
Speaker 1: wield a lot of power with the different networks, so
Speaker 1: it's always interesting to see how those guys go back
Speaker 1: and forth. That was a cool guest, and this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a really cool week of NFL. Last week
Speaker 1: was kind of a dud, but Thursday night was great
Speaker 1: and the season with Peter Schrager delivering results presented by
Speaker 1: Uber Eats. We give out a award and it's the
Speaker 1: delivering results presented by Uber eats, where you can get
Speaker 1: almost almost anything for game dates. The award for the
Speaker 1: best performance of the week, and I'm giving it to
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson. I thought Lamar Jackson was simply awesome last
Speaker 1: Thursday night at home in those purple Rising jerseys against
Speaker 1: the Bengals, fading drifting, there's that beautiful touch pass touchdown
Speaker 1: where he's almost looking like Steph Curry fading away. And
Speaker 1: I love the uniforms. Thought those were cool. The Ravens
Speaker 1: they hold serve with the Steelers and they've got a
Speaker 1: huge showdown this weekend. Lamar Jackson so fun to watch him.
Speaker 1: This year puts up huge numbers and now he's getting
Speaker 1: it done in crunch time, which wasn't always the case,
Speaker 1: and that was delivering results done by Uber Eats, where
Speaker 1: you can get almost almost anything for game day, the
Speaker 1: official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order. Now
Speaker 1: I'll close with those matchups. I think if you just
Speaker 1: sit at your TV on Thursday night, you're getting Commander's Eagles,
Speaker 1: and then on Sunday in the one o'clock window, you
Speaker 1: get your Steelers Ravens, in the four o'clock window, you
Speaker 1: get your Bills Chiefs, and then if you leave it
Speaker 1: all that night, you get that Bengals versus Chargers game.
Speaker 1: That is a really cool Thursday and a really cool Sunday,
Speaker 1: and I am here for all that. Aaron Wan Kaufman,
Speaker 1: Jason English, thank you guys, and thanks to everyone who's listening.
Speaker 1: Annie Bow's interesting guests. We'll do it again next week.
Speaker 1: Have a good one, everybody. The Season with Peter Schrager
Speaker 1: is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.