‘MNF’ games get some fine tuning
A few notes on NFL broadcasts after a chat with Brian Rolapp, NFL executive VP, chief media and business officer:
■ Three times this year the NFL gave ESPN/ABC a “Monday Night Football” doubleheader, and they tinkered with three formats. In Week 2, the ESPN game kicked off at 7:15 p.m. and the ABC game at 8:15 p.m. In Week 3, that was switched, with the ABC game kicking off first. And last Monday, the Giants-Packers and Dolphins-Titans games kicked off at the same time, 8:15 p.m.
“I’m not sure we’ve drawn any broad conclusions yet, but we do like the model where it’s ultimately more football for fans,” Rolapp said. “Last Monday was a perfect example — both those games were fantastic, and everyone got to see it, go back and forth, which they’re doing on Sundays anyway in a lot of ways.”
Expect ABC/ESPN to get more Monday doubleheaders next year. The NFL would rather put two games Monday in prime time than bury a bunch of games at 1 p.m. Sunday.
“The whole concept behind it is, can we take under-distributed games on Sunday afternoon and make it more widely distributed and we get a bigger audience?” Rolapp said.
R Rolapp said the NFL has been pleased with the switch of Sunday Ticket from DirecTV to YouTube TV.
“The quality of streams were clear, minimal buffering, so taking these games to digital were fantastic,” he said. “Fans seemed to react positively to it. They love the multiview, we hear a lot of that, so it’s been a really positive first year.”
■ The NFL took the rare step two weeks ago of flexing this weekend’s Chiefs-Patriots game from Monday night to Sunday at 1 p.m., and moving Eagles-Seahawks to “Monday Night Football”. This is the first year that the NFL can flex Monday night games.
“We try to use flex very, very sparingly, and I think it was a good decision,” Rolapp said. “Flex is really about making sure that teams get a way to play their way into prime time. It seemed like where the Patriots were it probably didn’t make as much sense, and we had a game that we felt was much more interesting.”
It’s true that the Patriots are dreadful, and the game could be a blowout. Then again, given the turmoil in Foxborough, and the storylines coming from the Chiefs — three losses in four games, last week’s blowup at the officials, Taylor Swift — the NFL and ESPN may wish they just kept Chiefs-Patriots on Monday night.
Trouble in Pittsburgh?
The Steelers simply don’t replace their head coach, having just three since 1969 — Chuck Noll (1969-1991), Bill Cowher (1992-2006), and Mike Tomlin (2007-present). Tomlin has a .631 win percentage in 17 seasons, remarkably has never had a season below .500, and this year has the Steelers at 7-6 despite horrid quarterback play.
Yet at least one person of significance believes the Steelers should consider a change — Ben Roethlisberger. The two-time Super Bowl winner and future Hall of Famer indirectly called out Tomlin on his podcast last week following the Steelers’ 21-18 loss to the Patriots.
“When you lose timeouts because of silly penalties — too many men on the field, not enough men on the field — you can’t afford in the second half of games to burn silly timeouts and not have them late in the game,” Roethlisberger said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “To me, that is . . . that’s bad. It’s bad coaching.”
Though Tomlin keeps the Steelers competitive each year, he underachieved with excellent teams in the mid-2010s, and hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season.
“Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done,” Roethlisberger added. “This isn’t what has been handed down from those teams of the ‘70s. The Steel Curtain, the four Super Bowls, the Nolls, the Bradshaws, the Blounts. All those people, it’s unbelievable.”
Extra points
For a team whose general manager once wore a shirt disparaging picks, the Rams have done a solid job of replenishing their roster with home-grown talent. In last Sunday’s 37-31 loss to the Ravens, rookie fifth-round receiver Puka Nacua had 84 receiving yards, fifthround tight end Davis Allen had 50 yards and a touchdown, and 2022 fifthround running back Kyren Williams rushed for 114 yards. Nacua is fifth in the NFL in receiving yards (1,113), while third-round defensive tackle Byron Young leads rookies with six sacks, plus 17 quarterback hits and 39 pressures … Tom Brady’s minority ownership stake with the Raiders, agreed to in May, still is not official, as NFL owners once again didn’t take up a vote at this past week’s winter meeting. The deal needs the approval of 24 owners, but Colts owner Jim Irsay said in October that Brady is getting too big of a discount, about 70 percent . . . An AFC executive loved my idea of creating a quarterback exception to the trade deadline to give teams more late-season flexibility to deal with injuries at the game’s most important position. Let’s make it happen, NFL . . . Credit Bill Belichick, who still knows how to coach defense. Even with Matthew Judon and Christian Gonzalez out for most of the season with injuries, the Patriots have allowed the third-fewest explosive plays — defined as runs of 10-plus yards and passes of 20-plus. The Vikings have the fewest (54), followed by the Dolphins (57) and Patriots (59). On the other end are the Bengals (96), Giants (85), and Packers (84) . . . It might be tempting for the Bears to blow up their operation and start over again. They are close to a lock for the No. 1 pick, plus another top-10 pick of their own, while coach Matt Eberflus is just 8-22 in two seasons and Justin Fields hasn’t thrived as hoped. But there seems to be momentum for the Bears to run it back in 2024. The Bears have won three of their last five, Fields is showing improvement, and the importance of continuity can’t be overstated in the NFL. Instead of blowing it up, the Bears would be better off drafting stud receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. . . . The NFL Accelerator Program, designed to introduce minority coaching and GM candidates to owners and power brokers, is certainly a noble initiative. But it doesn’t work if the owners don’t take it seriously. At last week’s three-day Front Office Accelerator, several owners didn’t arrive until the last day, skipping most of the events . . . Offensive tackle Jared Veldheer, 36, has come back to play three times since retiring on the Patriots in 2019, a week after he signed during May workouts. Veldheer unretired to join the Packers in 2019, played for the Colts and Packers in 2020, and now is back with the Colts after signing to their practice squad Dec. 11 . . . Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey, a 28-year-old rookie who was a 2017 draft pick of Toronto FC in Major League Soccer and never kicked in a football game until 2022, set two records in this past week’s win over the Eagles. He became the first player with two field goals of at least 59 yards in a game, and his field goals of 45, 50, 59, and 60 yards totaled 214 yards, the most by a kicker in a game . . . This quote from Roger Goodell on Wednesday says it all about the state of the Patriots. “Thirty of 32 teams still alive. That’s never happened to us before this time of year. It really bodes well for the competitiveness of this league.” The two teams eliminated from playoff contention? The Patriots and Panthers.