NFL Schedule Release Extravaganza, Colts Want NFL to Look Into Luck Contact, and Other NFL Bullets
It’s like Christmas in May for NFL fans. Beginning tomorrow and culminating on Thursday evening, the NFL will release the 2023 schedule. So, fans and pundits can start hyper-analyzing every matchup for the next two months until training camps open and we have football to discuss. Fun, right?
- The first Black Friday game is among the highlights of this year’s schedule release extravaganza. For the first time ever, NFL fans will be able to chase their Thanksgiving food and drink hangovers with live NFL action on the Friday following Turkey Day. Since many Americans now do their Black Friday shopping online anyway, the NFL should have no issue drawing ratings for this one.
- As Adam Schefter pointed out in a tweet sent on Wednesday afternoon, teams can only be on Thursday Night Football twice. Only some teams are guaranteed a primetime game. Also, there is no longer a network that houses teams from a particular conference. However, there is some confusion there already.
- Regarding the networks, FOX and CBS no longer own a “package” of games specific to the conferences. For example, under the previous setup, CBS hosted all Sunday afternoon games involving two AFC teams and any interconference games in which the AFC team was the visitor. Likewise, FOX had all Sunday afternoon games involving two NFC teams and any interconference games with the NFC team on the road.
- But, it might still be skewed towards the previous setup despite there not being “packages” in place. It’ll be interesting to see how the AFC/NFC divide shakes out between the two Sunday afternoon media outfits in the first year of “open bidding” for the action.
- The schedule release will be a media and fan spectacle in typical NFL fashion. Portions of the schedule will be rolled out over the next 48 hours on various networks and streaming services. For example, Amazon, who will televise the inaugural Black Friday game, will release that portion of the schedule tomorrow. The NFL Network and ESPN will release the slate of International Games tomorrow. In addition, select regular season games will be released on CBS and FOX programming tomorrow and Thursday. Here are the details:
- The trail of schedule breadcrumbs will lead to a Thursday evening release of the remainder of the schedule. The NFL and its broadcasting partners have many coverage options for fans. You can find the details on those in yesterday’s write-up on the news:
- The NFL is the league that never sleeps, and the schedule release is no exception.
- I led yesterday’s bullets with news of Jim Irsay tweeting a potential warning to teams regarding contact with Andrew Luck. As Irsay tweeted, any contact with Luck or his camp without Irsay’s permission would be tampering. Irsay’s tweet stemmed from a story at ESPN by Commanders reporter John Keim.
- Keim’s article unveiled the Commanders’ strong desire to secure a new starting quarterback for the 2022 season, prompting them to even contact Andrew Luck to gauge his interest in making a comeback to the field. “Even so, they didn’t feel the same urgency they did last offseason when they called every team that might have a quarterback available. They even phoned retired Andrew Luck, just in case.”
- So, Irsay has reportedly asked the NFL to look into the report by Keim. The Commanders did not contact Andrew Luck or anyone from his team, as denied by Luck himself based on a report by The Washington Post. Furthermore, an update on Keim’s story at ESPN clarified that the Commanders only phoned about Andrew Luck, rather than calling him directly.
- If you missed it, I wrote up a story on the Texans’ big gamble on draft night that rocked everyone on the first night of the NFL draft, including the media in attendance and the NFL staffers coordinating the event.
- I also wrote about the Colts unwillingness to watch Anthony Richardson potentially become a superstar anywhere else but Indianapolis …
- However, last night’s most important news didn’t come on the NFL side of things here at BN. Instead, Tab was at the United Center to watch the Blackhawks win the NHL Draft Lottery!
- The Chicago Blackhawks will pick No. 1 in the NHL Draft and have the first opportunity to select Connor Bedard. The Hawks are #back, baby!
