Weird Quirk About Bucs Schedule
May 18th, 2024
Sharing TV time Week 7.
Hey, at least the Bucs are the main event when they host the Crows on Monday Night Football.
Look, Joe is a football guy. More football is a good thing. Sorry, Peter King and Conor Orr.
Yes, Joe is a strong proponent of an 18-game schedule. If it takes a 20-game schedule to rid the Western world of this plague known as preseason football, Joe will drive the bandwagon for that.
For years the MAC has played football games every weekday in the month of November. Have you seen college football crater? Go ahead and check out the new TV contracts for the B1G and SEC for evidence how college football is doing.
And for the anti-Christmas football crowd, if you don’t like it, by all means don’t watch. Allow the millions of Americans like Joe the chance to enjoy Christmas football. And per the NFL’s own in-house data and research, that’s exactly what will happen.
This brings Joe to a recent tradition of the NFL that Joe absolutely hates! And the Bucs are indirectly, though innocently, linked to it this year.
Joe absolutely loved how BSPN would have a doubleheader on the first weekend of the year on Monday night. One game kicked off at 6-ish p.m., the second kicked off a 9 p.m. or so. Six hours of football on a Monday night! How is that a bad thing, exactly?
In fact, it was genius! Joe applauded the Disney suits for such wise foresight. Should have been a weekly thing. For some odd reason, the NFL a couple of years ago scrapped this and instead, began “staggered” start times, like the second game would kick off when the first game was in the second or third quarter.
Why? Who the hell just wants to watch part of a game? Yeah, Joe just DVR’ed the second game. Still, why subject fans to this?
Well, this year the Bucs are part of this irksome tradition and thanks to SI.com media columnist Jimmy Trania (his podcast is quite good when he stays away from New York-specific guests) for catching this.
When the Bucs host the Crows Week 7 on Monday night football, the game will kick off at 8:15 p.m. This will be broadcast on BSPN proper. Some 45 minutes later, when the Crows-Bucs game is in the second quarter, the Chargers-Cardinals game kicks off on BSPN+.
Why? Why would it be so awful for the Crows-Bucs game to begin at, say, at 6:30 p.m. and have the Chargers-Cardinals game start at 9:15 p.m.? Or, just have the Crows-Bucs at 6 p.m. and the Chargers-Cardinals at 9 p.m.?
Joe just doesn’t understand the staggered time. It deprives the nation of football.
At least the Bucs aren’t stuck on BSPN+ for that game. (Yes, Joe does have a BSPN+ subscription but understands many do not.)
May 18th, 2024 at 12:20 am
If the NFL played a 20 game season I think you’d see even more rules applied to the game to protect players. The NFL has already made some silly moves, I’d rather not see them get even more ridiculous.
The game staggering could be to accommodate commercial time.
May 18th, 2024 at 12:24 am
I, of course, have only ESPN+. This is even more despicable as if I want to at least hear the Bucs game on the radio, I will also miss watching the first half of the Chargers-Card game. Thanks, Joe, for making me get po’d ahead of time.
May 18th, 2024 at 12:28 am
Agree!
May 18th, 2024 at 2:52 am
BSPN is not incredibly bad. Glad we’ll be watching it locally on a better channel.
May 18th, 2024 at 5:11 am
The only thing that I can think of is 3:30 on a Monday Pacific time is probably not as interesting to advertisers as a 5:15 kickoff time. That said, I can’t imagine that BSPN doesn’t make more selling ads on the regular channel vs the +.
When in doubt, follow the money.
May 18th, 2024 at 5:52 am
Agree to all. Like the thought of 6:15 p.m. games instead too. And if they are going to be adding more and more games in the future, a change will need to be made. I do remember seeing another article linked here that Goodell may be thinking of Tuesday and Wednesday night games. Also maybe late Friday and Saturday night games, but there is an anti-trust broadcasting law for games from Labor Day to mid-December since 1961 that would need to be changed for that to happen. So we could also be talking high school and college games, and then later on NFL games streaming all in the same day.
May 18th, 2024 at 6:40 am
Oh well, at least we aren’t the second game
May 18th, 2024 at 6:46 am
Sorry. But for the religious players they are not in the armed forces. Off in another country fighting a war. They should be able to be home with their families on Christmas not across the country playing football just for your entertainment. I am not religious so I don’t care.. But to have that feeling is a complete ass. Go rerun old games and keep yourself busy.
May 18th, 2024 at 7:08 am
“…rid the Western world of this plague known as preseason football” D@mn it Joe!
May 18th, 2024 at 7:15 am
Kick off at 6:30 pm? 3:30 pm on the west coast and 12:30 pm in Hawaii. Not gonna happen.
May 18th, 2024 at 7:45 am
17 games is just dumb so they will go to 18 at some point. My guess was they moved to 17 games initially to collect data on player performance and viewership before adding more games. I too wouldn’t mind them getting rid of the preseason games.
May 18th, 2024 at 8:02 am
As OHBucFan said, follow the money.
Then NFL and Networks can charge more for commercial time for games starting in primetime, than those going up agains the evening news.
Also, while there would be several fans that would watch both games, I don’t think that number would account for even half of the total audience for either game. While the total viewership numbers may be down because those fans must choose one or the other (or have two TVs or visit a local watering hole that does), the ad revenue will be up.
May 18th, 2024 at 9:58 am
Preseason games let us see the backups and the players desperately trying to make the roster. Joe should love the preseason games as it lets Trask play and then JBF blows up with the Trask fan dreams 🙂 . (I’m not pro or con Trask).
May 18th, 2024 at 10:04 am
Preseason FB is “free” money for the league owners & doesn’t go against the CAP.
It gives teams some film of “game like” action and allows the FO’s to make more informed decisions on final roster spots and other teams an opportunity to pick & choose from the scrap heap Turk lists before final rosters are set….Before W/L records come into play.
I get it…Don’t necessarily like preseason games or having to pay premium prices to see 35+ guys on each side that will never play a down of real League action again…But do understand the thought process behind it.
I would get behind 20g regular season if the league wiped away the PS & folded those guys into the true gameday/everyday rosters. Give teams the depth they need to compete every week. (And smart FO’s the ability to really stockpile talent in the cupboard)…It’s not like the league doesn’t have the coin to do so & now many charter aircraft seat enough to handle the added roster spots. (airline travel accommodations were one reason the rosters were limited in the past)
May 18th, 2024 at 10:09 am
Maximize viewership (revenue) coast to coast. Not all fans have the ability or time to commit a 6 hr block of their Monday to sit staring at a TV with a chicken wing hanging off their lips and a beer in hand. I realize that a large portion of your followers are retired, and you represent the ultimate level of NFL immersion, but for working folk a 6p ET start means 2p PT ( when most ppl are at work on the west coast) and a 9p ET start means a 12am ET finish (when most ppl who work want to be in bed on the east coast). I think your timing would work better on a Friday night; unfortunately, most ppl who have a life are out enjoying it on Friday night and not sitting in front of a TV for 6 hrs.
May 18th, 2024 at 10:33 am
NOBODY is watching the “Evening News” anymore, Trev. Not in a real long time. It would be one of the very last things that THE NFL would even consider. They are not worried in the least. Plays literally, ZERO role as far as ratings go. No one would miss it.
May 19th, 2024 at 1:07 am
I totally agree, the “staggered” start times are lame af. Back to back was way better.
I do understand why they do this though, so that both games are watchable for everyone (East coast to west coast), in terms of timing. An early game is hard if you work a 9-5 on the west coast.
That said, I of course will only care about the Bucs game, so it won’t bother me that night.
May 19th, 2024 at 7:17 pm
If u r the bucs fan who the hell is gonna change the channel to watch the Cardinals maybe only an idiot
May 19th, 2024 at 7:21 pm
Hawaii who wudda thunk