I’m not one to give the Green Bay Packers credit for things when I don’t need to, but I appreciate how often the franchise’s leaders talk publicly. A little bit of transparency at the top can for a long way.
And in this instance, Packers President Mark Murphy’s recent appearances in an interview with radio play-by-play voice Wayne Larrivee revealed some important information regarding how the NFL could handle its schedule down the road this season:
"We could move the Super Bowl back as far as four weeks." Mark Murphy during the @packers broadcast tonight. pic.twitter.com/603uJ8ovc2
— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) October 17, 2020
The NFL insists on plowing through and fitting the regular season into a 17-week window. And to this point, it hasn’t needed to dip into its fallback plans. But the league cancelled the Pro Bowl, which provided some newfound flexibility should they need to fit an additional week of games in (if more COVID outbreaks cause games to get rescheduled). But Murphy takes it up a notch, adding the league can push the Super Bowl back up to four weeks. That’s noteworthy. In other words, the league could fit in multiple weeks worth of rescheduled games if necessary. Obviously, that’s not the ideal route. But as we’ve said from the beginning, having contingency plans is good.
At this point, the NFL has had to only postpone some games and tweak some schedules. But 10 teams have already had bye weeks, which could complicate future rescheduling. Hence, the importance of making plans for Week 18 (just in case).
Overall, it’s smart of the league to have backup plans. Playing the Super Bowl on February 14, 21, 28, or March 7 isn’t what the league has in mind, it’s good that the league is ready if worst-case scenarios play out.
As of now, Super Bowl LV will take place February 7. But no matter the date, my hope is that the Bears (and not the Packers) are in it.