One of these years, the NFL will realize that, in lieu of dropping the bulk of the regular-season schedule on a Thursday night, the league could take over a whole week of sports with the announcement of when games will happen — and of the networks on which they’ll be broadcast. For now, the league provides a limited taste.
Via Chief NFL Spokesman Brian McCarthy, several games will be announced before Thursday night.
On Wednesday, NFL Network and ESPN will announce the international games. Also on Wednesday, Amazon will announce the first-ever Black Friday game — and CBS and Fox will announce “select individual games” on their morning shows.
On Thursday, NBC and ABC will do the same as CBS and Fox on Wednesday; “select individual games” will be announced.
It would make sense to have, for example, the Amazon slate on a Monday, the Sunday night games on NBC on a Tuesday, the Monday night games on a Wednesday, the special holiday games on a Thursday morning, and then the rest of the schedule on Thursday night.
Own the whole week, NFL. Eventually, that’s the way it will be. It’s just a matter of time.