Flexing, for the sake of flexing
We don't pretend to know what exactly the restrictions are that affects how NBC's "flex schedule" of NFL games takes shape, only that they've already pulled the trigger on one game -- swapping Chicago-Seattle out on Nov. 18 for New England-Buffalo.
For those who've asked, we'll try to make some sense of it.
Here's what NBC's Sunday Night schedule looks like for the rest of the season:
Nov. 11 - Indianapolis at San Diego
Nov. 18 - New England at Buffalo
Nov. 25 - Philadelphia at New England
Dec. 2 - Cincinnati at Pittsburgh
Dec. 9 - Indianapolis at Baltimore
Dec. 16 - Washington at NY Giants
Dec. 23 - Tampa Bay at San Francisco
Dec. 30 - Kansas City at New York Jets
The network gives Chicago-Seattle back to the Fox's lot of games on Nov. 18, and New England-Buffalo comes out of CBS' choices that weekend.
"The Patriots quest for a perfect season is clearly the biggest story in the NFL," said Dick Ebersol, NBC's grand decision maker, trying to justify his network's decision. "It's also been 13 years since the NFL's premier primetime game visited Buffalo and it will be quite a scene there."
Perhaps Ebersol's cable went out earlier this year when Dallas played a game on Monday Night in Buffalo on ESPN and won on that dramatic last second field goal, keeping the Cowboys undefeated before their game against .... who was it? .... oh, right, New England.
Every game on NBC's schedule after Nov. 25 is open for change as well, and probably will, except for Philadelphia at New England on Nov. 25. But even when considering what NBC will try to do to get more Patroits' games on as the season winds down, this one against the Steelers could be tossed back and replaced with another one down the road.
There are guidelines by which NBC can or can't take a game from CBS and Fox, who've also paid billions of dollars for the rights to these contests and aren't that crazy about another network cherry picking.
The rules as we've been told are:
-- Only three teams can appear as many as six times in primetime -- either on NBC, ESPN or the NFL Network
-- No team can appear more than four times on NBC.
-- Fox and CBS can protect one game a week, but not during the final week of the season (and it can lose a game that week on just six-days notice)
The tricky part for NBC, which can take a game up to 12 days in advance, is lining up Patroits' games toward the end of its schedule -- but it will be unable to take the team's season-ender since that's already locked into -- surprise -- the NFL Network. And it ain't about to let that one slide. That's money in the bank when it comes to bargaining with cable operators who still refuse to carry the channel.
USA Today columnist Michael Hiestand spends his Wednesday column sorting out NBC's options for the rest of the season and frankly spends more time dicing and slicing that we're ready to even attempt.
Just get the best game on, and we're fine.