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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Ivan Lambert

Did the NFL scam the Commanders?

The NFL schedule-makers like their flexibility to rearrange the schedule in the later weeks of the season.

You probably are aware the Commanders’ Week 15 game against the Giants has been moved to the NBC Sunday Night Football game of the week at the 8 p.m. ET time slot. The game was previously scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.

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The Commanders, of course, could use the prime time exposure, yet seeing the Commanders are already scheduled to travel in Week 16 to San Francisco for a Saturday game makes this an even tougher task for the Commanders.

With a Sunday night Week 15 game kicking off at 8:20 p.m., the game would not end until roughly 11:30 p.m. This means Commanders players will not be getting to their homes from Landover until at least 3 to 4 a.m., Monday.

What’s more, when one looks at the 49ers’ Week 15 schedule, there is absolutely no way the league office overlooked the obvious fact that the 49ers will be playing on Thursday in Week 15. Consequently, the 49ers will have three more days of prep time and rest for a game where they are also the home team. In addition, the visiting team is playing the Sunday night game and will travel three time zones. Way to go, NFL.

If the league office wanted to flex the Commanders and Giants Week 15 game bad enough, why didn’t they flex it to Saturday night? They are playing games that Saturday. They certainly could have, as they flexed Miami at Buffalo to Saturday night.

A December game in Buffalo, not while the sun is shining in the afternoon, but in much colder temperatures in the dark of night? Even more, when are the Bills playing a team from south Florida? Come on, NFL. How hard are you trying here?

Each and every season there are such examples of the NFL simply not caring enough about scheduling integrity.  We have written about this before here at Commanders Wire.

Why doesn’t the NFL care enough to make better efforts at a level playing field in scheduling?

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