Is it possible that the NFL makes the decision to take away the annual Thanksgiving Day matchup from the Detroit Lions?
Well, during a recent video conference with the media, NFL Vice President of Broadcast Planning Mike North admitted that it “looks odd” to not have the Lions in any primetime games during the 2022 season.
“Unattractive is not the right word,” North said of the Lions. “The real thing for us is, again, we look at them on national windows and we can never lose sight of the fact that Thanksgiving afternoon window — that 12:30 window in Detroit — most years is the Number Two or Number Three most-watched NFL game every year, so there’s no hesitation to put the Lions in a national window like that. . . . You could certainly make a pretty compelling argument they’re gonna get a lot more eyeballs for that one than they would have if they had one kind-of stand-alone Monday night game or one kind-of stand-alone Thursday night game. I acknowledge that it ‘looks odd’ to have them not in prime-time, but they’re gonna be playing in one of the five most-watched games of this season. That’s pretty good, too.”
After seeing that comment by North, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk speculated that the NFL could be “at least pondering the possibility” of taking the game away from the Lions.
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From Pro Football Talk:
But that’s the case every year, given that the Lions have owned this spot for decades and presumably will continue to do so. In a weird sort of way, North’s decision to justify no prime-time appearances for the Lions by saying, “Well, they’re getting one of the best spots of the year” creates the impression that maybe the league is at least pondering the possibility of being more strategic about 12:30 ET on Thanksgiving and less tied to tradition.
Well, as we know, anything is possible when it comes to the NFL but, in my opinion, it is quite the stretch for Florio to suggest that the game could be taken away from the Lions.
Nation, what do you think?
