2014 NFL off-season thread

I figured we needed one of these in addition to the draft thread.

Thursday night games on CBS...

Vikings keep Mike Priefer as special teams coach.

 

The Putin of the NFL -- homos will be just fine as long as they keep it to themselves.

 

Does this mean the Patriots will only play on Thursdays now?

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/sports/football/cbs-to-carry-8-thursday-night-nfl-games-next-season.html

Here is the complete CBS-Thursday NFL story NYT published. Anybody else wondering why NFL itself wanted out of the PBP coverage all 16 weeks (other than expense, of course)?

 

Because they're as sick of Mike Mayock as the rest of us are.

It's a good time for the NFL to test the waters on taking the cash upfront from someone else versus building the NFL Network brand. They're in the middle of long-term deals with the cable companies, I think the first one doesn't run out until 2017, and the carriage price is locked in. So they have a few years to dip into both revenue pools and see which they want to go ultimately.

 

I'm guessing CBS paid a pretty penny for the Thursday night games.

 

Oh, yeah. Maybe as much as for the year of their Sunday deal. It's gonna double their prime time ratings for that night, and that's a night where they have one of their highest rated shows (Big Bang Theory). Just the fact CBS got the bid and not another cable network shows the price came mighty, mighty high.

 

So does this mean that Nance / Sims won't be doing a Sunday game.

 

Story says it's "believed to be" $250 million for the eight games, which would only be about half the cost on a per-game basis of the NBC, CBS or Fox deals. But it's a one-year deal, and I'm sure any sign of growth will result in a huge bidding war next year.

Interesting also that in addition to the Nantz/Simms combo, NBC said Michaels and Collinsworth would have done the games if NBC had won. I guess those guys won't exactly get burned out working twice a week eight times a year, but it does show what kind of weight this new Thursday package is going to carry.

I still hate it, though.

 

I think the biggest problem with NFL Network was just not enough cable systems carried it or carried it on some premium tier. The reason to add the live games was to try to generate more demand. There are so many news and highlight shows that no one needs another channel to get that. So if people are going to shell out, the network has to give them something they can't get anywhere else. If you don't have any exclusive programming, you might as well close shop. That's why this was so puzzling to me.

 

As posted above, they're making an exploratory bet. If the ratings are high, and they will be, they can either take the money for the next contract and run or go back to the cable companies and demand and get higher fees for NFL Network, whichever works best. Either way, the NFL wins. It always wins.

 

It's interesting that they are going to simulcast the first eight weeks and then the last eight weeks exclusively on NFL Network. My guess is that they hope people will get in the habit of watching the games and then rush out to get NFL Network.

Problem is you've got games now on Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night. Unless YOUR team happens to be playing that particular week, how much demand is there?