NFL reportedly may want to flex Chiefs-Bears game out of ‘Sunday Night Football’ slot
When the 2019 NFL schedule was released, the Chiefs’ game on Dec. 22 in Chicago checked all the boxes for being broadcast in prime time.
Two teams with playoff aspirations, star power in Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and the connection between the head coaches. The Bears’ Matt Nagy was an assistant under the Chiefs’ Andy Reid.
That is why the game was scheduled to be broadcast on NBC on “Sunday Night Football.”
Alas, the playoff implications in the game now appear minimal. The Bears, 7-6, are barely in the race, while the Chiefs, 9-4, already have won the AFC West. That’s why the NFL is considering flexing the game out of prime time, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The deciding factor will come Sunday when the Bears play in Green Bay. Chicago has a 2% chance of making the playoffs, according to FiveThirtyEight.com and the New York Times. Both say a Packers win would give the Bears a less than 1% shot at the playoffs.
So if the Bears lose, the meeting against the Chiefs likely will be flexed.
“The game would likely be replaced by the Saints-Titans,” the Sun-Times wrote.
“The league typically has a 12-day window to ‘flex’ their Sunday night game. But when Tuesday came and went, the league confirmed that it shifted to a six-day window for the Week 16 game.”
Tennessee (8-5) is tied atop the AFC South with the Texans, but Houston holds the tiebreaker and is the fourth seed in the playoff field. Houston plays at Tennessee on Sunday.
The Saints still have a shot at the top spot in the NFC playoff field.
If flexed, the Chiefs’ game would be moved to the afternoon. The NFL schedule currently shows the Saints-Titans game set to kick off at noon and be broadcast on Fox.
You can read more of the Sun-Times story here.
This story was originally published December 11, 2019 at 12:40 PM.
