The NFL needs to keep these Monday night double headers permanently originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
It's pretty much impossible to get used to the weird NFL schedule this year, but there might be some good that comes out of this unpredictable 2020 season.
Given that the league's schedule is, and likely will continue to be, fluid thanks to COVID-19 precautions, we've found ourselves watching football at times and on days we're not used to.
The Ravens and Steelers have seen their game get moved about 100 times, settling on a Wednesday 3:40 p.m. kickoff, which in turn moved the Washington/Pittsburgh game to Monday at 5 p.m., giving us yet another Monday night double-header.
I'll keep screaming it until I can bring it into existence -- Monday Night Football double-headers should be the future of the NFL (if you read that in a screaming voice you're doing it right).
Week 6 brought us this scenario, and the NFL should look into permanently -- doing away with Thursday Night Football, and giving us doubleheaders every Monday instead.
(I have proof I've been first in line for this by the way, so please jump on this bandwagon with me)
Yes, the NFL has opened up its seasons recently with a Monday Night Football doubleheader, but it always ends up putting the second game after 10 p.m. and losing a ton of the audience in the Eastern time zone in the process.
This 2020 concept however already had the Chiefs and Bills at 5 p.m. followed by the regularly scheduled Cowboys and Cardinals at 8:15 (a game where Dallas got whooped which made it extra fun).
This is the perfect way to make Mondays far less horrible.
Do this, and you eliminate short weeks for teams, and hopefully the far-too-often bad football you see on Thursday night.
We're already used to watching football all day on Sunday, which makes the habit of going right back to it as the work day winds down on Monday a whole lot easier.
The key here is that early game needs to still be catered to the Eastern time zone. A 2 p.m. kickoff on the West Coast will be hard for many to be able to swing, but you have the bigger audience in the east with two teams preferably from the region playing.
The second game can even kick off slightly later, say 8:30 or even 8:45 and you'll still have a big audience.
Thursday games should be treated like Saturday NFL games. They work on Thanksgiving and late in the season when playoff positioning matters more, without watering down the schedule.
I get it, some of you have said to me: "Well what about Thursday and Monday? Or Thursday double-headers too?"
I love your enthusiasm, but you have to be careful with too many nights with the NFL, simply because one of the best things about this sport is that every game becomes an event. Multiple games on a Monday means people who sit down for the first one are more likely to stick around for the second, but it's still set to one night.
It creates a habit that carries throughout the evening too, and just makes too much sense not to happen.
Sometimes good ideas are discovered out of necessity, or even by accident. I have no idea who figured out chocolate-covered bacon was a good idea, but I'd bet it was likely by accident (or maybe they were drunk), but now we all benefit from an idea that was once tried for the first time.
I'll continue to be on board with this, and so should you. Most importantly though, we need the NFL to feel the same way.
