NFL will have a Week 16 Saturday doubleheader

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 5, 2014, 2:07 PM EST
AP

Mark your calendar for December 20, the return of Saturday football in the NFL.

The NFL has confirmed that the two Saturday games scheduled for the 2014 season will be in a doubleheader in Week 16. There were no Saturday games in 2013, but in past years the NFL has experimented with Saturday afternoon and Saturday night games. (The last time the NFL played on a Saturday was in Week 16 of 2012, when Calvin Johnson broke Jerry Rice’s NFL record for receiving yards in a season, but the Falcons beat the Lions to clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.)

Exact kickoff times and TV schedules for the two games on Saturday, December 20 have not yet been determined.

The league announced that it was planning two Saturday games when it revealed that CBS would simulcast the first eight NFL Network games of the season. Those Thursday games on CBS will begin in Week Two, after NBC televises the traditional Thursday night Week One opener. The new deal with CBS for Thursdays does not affect Thanksgiving, when CBS, FOX and NBC will continue to show their Thanksgiving games as normal.

Every week of the season will have a Thursday night game except Week 17, when all 32 teams will play on Sunday.

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29 responses to “NFL will have a Week 16 Saturday doubleheader”

  4. Until you can watch whatever game you want online and pay directly without having to go through a middleman like DirecTV or Verizon, the NFL is living in the dark ages.

  5. Ah, having to choose the NFL or NCAA. I mean the Terps will probably be busy getting railed by the rest of the B1G so I won’t be missing much haha

  7. Having regular season FB on Thu, Sat & Sun is overload IMO. I’d prefer they were all played on Sunday only but…

  8. There shouldn’t be much NCAA football then except maybe some random early bowl game. This is a step in the right direction, should play on the Saturday before too since the first Sat in December is the end of the college football regular season.

  11. Yeah!! – Saturday football returns. I dont care so much for the Thursday games. But why cant they go back to having a 4pm and an 8pm game the last 2-3 Saturdays when college football is on hiatus until the bowl games. They had that until the NFL Network started getting involved. It used to be a 1pm and 4pm game, but I loved Saturday night football.

  13. I wonder if they will be flex games or pre-scheduled? If we get 2 teams not trying to get into the playoffs by then… who cares.

  15. By law, the NFL is not allowed to have nationally televised games between 6:00 PM ET on Fridays and 11:59 PM ET on Saturdays from Labor Day weekend through the second week of December (that’s why the last preseason games are all on Thursdays). That is to protect college and high school football and I believe was re-done that way after 9/11 caused there to be an additional week of games in college football with the SEC Championship game in particular pushed back a week. Even if that isn’t the case, you still have the Army-Navy game on the second week in December and many high school playoff games still going on at that time what would be harmed if the NFL had games that Saturday.

    That left the NFL with no choice but to go with a doubleheader in Week 16 due to the fact the last week has to have every team playing to best assure NBC gets a matchup with guaranteed playoff implications that Sunday night.

  16. “Every week of the season will have a Thursday night game except Week 17, when all 32 teams will play on Sunday.”

    Doing the math here, If they are going to do the traditional Thursday night Dubleheader, and everyone will play one Thursday night game, Won’t that mean there will not be Thursday night football after Week 13?

  17. Wonder if those Saturday games will be flexible?
    After the success of Sunday night flex games, I can’t believe that the networks want crap games that late in the season on Saturday. How nice it would be to see 5 games that mean something in one weekend (2 Saturday, 2 Sunday, and Sunday night).

  19. The nfl won’t flex games to a different day. That’s why they only flex Sunday to Sunday night. They think people don’t want to upset their plans by changing by a day or two.

  20. You know it will include the Donkeys and the NFLs little darling MegaHead…the ‘greatest regular season QB ever’!

    I still haven’t wiped the smile from my face after that destruction of the Donkeys Sunday. 🙂

  21. The technology is available to let everyone who wants to watch a game to watch any game that they want to watch and that’s how it should be. I’m not saying it should be free but give people the choice to watch the games that they want to watch and not what the NFL or a network decides that they’ll watch.

  23. NOOOOOO…. My wife is going to kill me if I park myself in front of the TV all day Sunday AND Saturday.

  24. Isn’t the NFL kinda dumping on its partner, ESPN?

    First, Thursday night games to crush college games.

    Now, Saturday games to crush the Las Vegas and New Orleans Bowls.

    I guess the NFL hates ESPN as much as the rest of us!

  26. Even if that isn’t the case, you still have the Army-Navy game on the second week in December and many high school playoff games still going on at that time what would be harmed if the NFL had games that Saturday.

    ———————————–

    The Army/Navy game was not played on the second Saturday in December until just a few years ago, the traditional date was always the first Saturday in December. I don’t think the Sports Broadcasting Act would be construed to preclude the NFL from playing on that second December Saturday simply because Army/Navy chose to move that game, that would be absurd.

  28. “Every week of the season will have a Thursday night game except Week 17, when all 32 teams will play on Sunday”.

    Week 16’s Thursday night game will be on Christmas night then.

  29. Now why can’t it be Super Bowl Saturday too?! Hate coming in to work on Monday all dazed, tired, and with a headache. Championship games should be played on Saturdays, not Sundays or Mondays (NCAA).

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