The good news when it comes to the league’s wrong-headed decision to embrace late-season Thursday night flexing is that it’s a temporary, one-year move only.
That’s an important point, because it will require 24 votes again in 2024 to extend it. Once a move is permanent, 24 votes become necessary to get rid of it.
The measure automatically will extend by a year only if Thursday night flexing is not used at all in 2023.
It would not be a surprise to see the league use this new power very sparingly, in the hopes of securing the permanent revision whenever it next comes up for a vote. Hopefully, teams that have approved it will require more than one year of data points before making it permanent.
Regardless, this one really isn’t over. It will be a thing again in 2024. Or 2025. Hopefully, more than eight teams will realize before then that it’s bad for paying customers — that it’s “abusive” to team, as Giants co-owner John Mara said in March.