In what is being described as a historical rebuff of a sitting president by Congressional leadership, Barack Obama has been blocked by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio; pictured) from addressing a joint session of the nation’s legislative body on September 7, at which time a presidential debate will be conducted in California. And so the President has caved, moving the speech to Thursday, September 8.
And that sets up a direct conflict with the commencement of the 2011 NFL regular season, with the Saints facing the Packers at Lambeau Field that same night.
It remains to be seen whether NBC will cover the speech in lieu of the game, which is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET. If ABC, CBS, and FOX all choose to broadcast the address and NBC opts to send any interested members of its audience to MSNBC and/or CNBC, the ratings for the NFL opener could go through the roof.
All we know for now is that the speech won’t be carried on VERSUS between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. ET, during the debut of NBC SportsTalk, featuring our new buddy Russ Thaler and a certain Internet hack who soon will become a cable TV jackwagon.