The bathroom-break window between the early and late games on Sunday afternoon is growing.
John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal reports that the NFL will move the kickoff time for the late-afternoon Sunday games from 4:15 p.m. ET to 4:25 p.m. ET.
The goal is to reduce overlap with the 1:00 p.m. ET games. It’s an objective that becomes even more important, now that the postseason overtime rule has been shifted to the regular season. In theory, the early games can now last longer, encroaching more deeply into the double-header broadcast.
Ourand doesn’t address whether regionally-televised games that currently begin at 4:05 p.m. ET also will be delayed.
It all makes sense, as long as you remember to DVR NBC’s Football Night in America, which begins at 7:00 p.m. ET every Sunday.
UPDATE 11:01 a.m. ET: The NFL has announced the change. The league explains that the change would have reduced overlap by 66 percent over the last three seasons, reducing the numbers of affected games from 44 to 15. The league also said that the regionally-televised late-afternoon games will continue to begin at 4:05 p.m. ET.