Flex Scheduling with the NFL's Onnie Bose

Peter starts the podcast by explaining how important hiring the right Offensive Coordinator can be for a young QB. In the case of the Bears, he paints the picture of Kliff Kingsbury, a college coach of Caleb Williams' at USC, being passed over for the job after interviewing for the position. The Raiders and Bears both opted to hire other OC's than Kingsbury; both of whom have been fired before Thanksgiving. Peter, then, addresses the many (well, some) people online who've been crushing him for his bold and optimistic preseason Jets predictions.

The guest this week is the NFL's Vice President of Broadcasting, Onnie Bose. In addition to working on the team that puts together the NFL schedule, Onnie is one of a small group of league employees who handles the delicate dance of flex scheduling. In this conversation, Onnie schools us on the rules of flex scheduling, the upcoming holiday games, as well as the conversations that happen with the network executives before the playoffs. Onnie ends it with some good life and career advice for those looking to be employed by the NFL. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schraeger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, Welcome to
the Season with Peter Schrager. We're here in week eleven.

(00:28):
We had a bit of a bye week last week.
I figured it was election week. Well, we'll let you
listen to that stuff and we'll take the week off.
It wasn't this great of a slate that we have
in week eleven. And as we look towards these games,
I am counting on my hands four different awesome matchups
like Chiefs versus Bills is amazing to have in any week,

(00:50):
and it's Week eleven where the stakes couldn't be higher.
And yet I don't even know if that's the game
of the week because on Thursday night you've got Eagles
commanders first time they're playing this season. And then you
also have a Steelers Ravens game, where the Steelers schedule
is so interesting they haven't even played a divisional and
we're entering mid November. The Steelers still have you know,

(01:11):
obviously they got to play the Ravens this weekend. They're
gonna play Bengals twice, Browns twice, and the Ravens again,
and the other one is Sunday Night one that I think
it's really interesting over the last couple of weeks because
of the way the teams have performed. The Bengals offense
has exploded, and though they lost last Thursday, there's still

(01:32):
four and six and they're going up against a very good,
very hot Chargers team on Sunday Night and again that
I can't imagine is going to be a ratings bonanza
when you have the Chargers and the Bengals square and off.
But you better believe I'll be watching. They'll be good.

(01:52):
I have so many thoughts about this week. Where do
I begin. Let's start with a little unpacking of what
happened today in Chicago, and I put this on social media.
I said a little bit on Good Morning Football, but
this is my podcast. Could talk a little bit more
about it. I'm not angry about it. It happens. Teams
don't go through the process and always have it all

(02:13):
work out. But I look at my friend and a
guy who I thought was I don't know, I thought
he was not as highly coveted as he should have
been over this hiring cycle in Cliff Kingsbury, and I
look at his path of how things went in January,
once he made it known that after a year away

(02:35):
from the NFL and working with Caleb Williams at USC
and basically a pro bono gig for Lincoln Riley just
so he could work with Caleb Williams and and you know,
I have an opportunity to go back to his roots
and work with a star quarterback and build an offense.
Cliff made it known that he was ready to come
back to the NFL if there was an appropriate offer

(02:58):
or taker. He thought he was going to Vegas. They
brought him in for an interview. He hit it off
with Antonio Pears. They brought him back to Vegas. He
hit it off with Tom to LESCo, the GM And
from what I am told, and it's not directly from Cliff,
but this is pretty well known. The years on the contract,
there was a miscommunication as to what was expected and offered.

(03:21):
And standard standard deals are three year deals for coordinators.
Now I don't know what Antonio Pierce's deal is. You
certainly wouldn't want a coordinator's job to be longer than
the head coach's job, and there might have been something there,
but the three year deal was not offered in Vegas,
so Cliff did not take that job. Earlier in the process,

(03:42):
the Chicago Bears flew out to California and met with
Cliff at a hotel and they met for many hours,
and he said they obviously meant he wanted to be
the OC of the Bears, or at least have an
offer from the Bears. He had Caleb Williams in college.
They were obviously taking Caleb Williams first. Overall, they knew
that in their heads, and they met with them for

(04:03):
several hours and at the end of it there was
no offer made. I point to those two teams because
you have two teams who are obviously going into the
draft and going into the season with giant questions at quarterback,
but with hopes at the quarterback position. And Cliff has
proven at the very least, if you don't think he's
a good head coach, it's fine, But through Mahomes and

(04:24):
through experience with Kyler Murray in those first few years,
and of course what we're seeing with Jayden Daniels now.
But like at the very least, he's great with young quarterbacks,
and he's great with drawing up offense and great speaking
with quarterbacks and if he's not gonna be your head coach,
I think he's a worthy candidate to consider it for
offensive coordinator. Raiders say they don't want to give him
that commitment. Years wise, they move on. They hire Guy

(04:46):
luke Getzy. Luke Getzy was fired eight weeks into the
first year of a three year deal which they did
give luke Getzy. First month of the season did not
go well. Second month of the season, he didn't survive it.
Luke Getzy was fired before Halloween. The Raiders passed on
Kingsbury over years on a contract. Okay, the Bears, Caleb

(05:06):
william is going to be the quarterback. Caleb Bincliff have
a great relationship. They already have a year under their
belt together. The Bears. They decide that after meeting with Cliff,
Shane Waldron, who was in Seattle last year, was the
more appropriate pick and that that was going to be
their guy. And Shane Waldron, who had I think very
little history with Matt Abraflus, he was the guy. Well,

(05:27):
Shane Waldron's been fired as of today, and that's ten
weeks into the season. He didn't last to Thanksgiving either.
That's the first year of a contract as well. Both
of those guys, Getsy and Waldron will be paid out
the remainder of their contracts. They'll be paid in full.
They'll be taken care of. They'll be making millions and
millions of dollars. Kingsbury, who also interviewed with Philadelphia. Ironically
they went with Kellen Moore. Ironically they're going to be

(05:50):
the division they're playing Thursday night. Cliff did not get
offered the job in Philly either. He goes to Washington.
It all works out. Everyone's happy, and it's great, and
Jaden's having success. But I go back to how important
a young quarterback and who you pair him with is. Now,
would the Raiders offense be sputtering if Cliff Kingsbury was
with Gardner, Minshew and O'Connell. Maybe would the Bears offense

(06:14):
be worse with Kingsbury? I doubt it, I really do.
Would the Washington commanders be just as good with Shane
Waldron or Luke Etzi. I don't think so. I'm not
in the business of hiring coaches. I don't know the
mechanics behind it all. I do know the importance of
a young quarterback. I do know the importance of a
good quarterback. Mine. I do know the importance of an
offensive coordinator, and sometimes I could see it a mile away.

(06:37):
This one, to me was wild that the Bears didn't
consider Cliff. It was surprising to me that the Raiders
thought that they should, you know, have issues with the contract,
or that Cliff would be okay taking a hometown discount,
whatever it was, when they had such a giant, voided quarterback.
So those teams go back to the drawing boards. Cliff
now is the obviously the offensive coordinator Jayden Daniels. That's

(07:00):
going well. And I'm not saying Cliff needs to be
a head coach next year. In fact, I don't even
know if he's going to be a head coach or
is gonna get in interviews. I don't, But I know
he's a good offensive coordinator, and I know those players
like him, and I know that Commander's offense looks pretty good.
What's my point. It's sliding doors, it's ships in the night,
it's all this stuff. But like those decisions, those decisions

(07:22):
can separate a young quarterback from having great success, and
a team from having great success from being you know,
back at the drawing board. And now we're going to
our second or third or fourth option to run our offense.
You could say I'm a Kingsbury fanboy. You could say
what I want, or I'm just taking care of my
friends and saying this stuff. I genuinely believe he's very

(07:44):
respected around the league. And I also don't make a
single dollar off saying that. You know, I'm not bought
and paid for by anybody. I just cover the league.
I watch the league, and I think Cliff and Caleb
would have been a great mix, but that wasn't the
direction the Bears wanted to go. All right, So that's
the Bears and their season's not done, but it's going
the wrong way, and I don't know. Maybe i'm a pessimist.

(08:07):
I don't know if they suddenly turn it on and
last year, I'll say it like it is. Last year,
I thought the Bills were going in the wrong direction.
They fired an offensive coordinator, Joe Brady came in, and
that team soared all the way to an AFC divisional
round game where they were hosting it and they won
the division and the whole thing. So maybe it could happen,
but I just I don't know. With a rookie quarterback

(08:29):
and Thomas Brown doesn't have the same pedigree maybe that
Joe Brady had, who obviously was with LSU and then
was with the Panthers and had that whole stuff. All Right,
then there's the Jets, and I want to use the
next few minutes to address the millions of Jets fans
out there who a had to sit through Sunday's horrendous

(08:54):
thirty one to six loss to the Cardinals, and to
be the thousands of people online who tweet me every
single day and say that led them astray by telling
them that the Jets would be the number one seed
in the AFC and Aaron Rodgers would be MVP this year.
It was a bad call. It was a horrendous call.

(09:14):
This is my maya kopa. I'm doing it on November.
What day is today?

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Er?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
November eight? What do we got? I don't even know.
Twelfth Tuesday, Tuesday the twelfth, a week after the election,
when a lot of other people who are paid a
lot more money than me got a lot of different
things wrong on television. I will say this, I am sorry.
I led you astray. If you use my prognostication as
a as a fuel for optimism and you feel misled.

(09:42):
I apologize if you use my prognostication to I don't know,
make a small wager somewhere with one of those companies
that may or may not sponsor this podcast. I am
sorry about that. It ain't happening, it's done. I'm sorry.
And yet they still have all these games to play,
and I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Rogers

(10:04):
still does McAfee every week for like a long time.
They still have Rogers under contract, they still have all
of these veterans that they have signed. Devontae Adams is
under contract, like they have to. Hey, Sauce Gardner, who's
having a season that I don't think even in his
worst nightmares Sauce Gardner would imagine. They have to figure

(10:26):
out Garrett Wilson's deal. They're gonna have a high draft pick.
Do they take a quarterback, do they bring back Joe Douglas,
can he salvage his job? Or is it even in jeopardy?
I don't even know. Okay, Well, Trump just won the presidency.
The last time Trump won, Woody Johnson went over to
the UK and served as the ambassador for the United

(10:47):
States in the UK for four years and his younger
brother Christopher ran the team. Is that happening again? The
Jets are still very interesting. They might not be good,
they might not be watchable, but they're still very interesting.
And how the next few weeks play out, and as
we head towards December when they might be spoilers for

(11:09):
a lot of teams on the schedule, because you know,
Rogers is gonna get a few of these squads. You know,
Rogers is gonna pick and pluck you. They're gonna beat
one of these teams, like they play the Rams in
late December. I'm not putting anything out there, but like,
I feel like that might be a game. They play
the Seahawks Thanksgiving weekend, Like that might be a game.
The Jets are gonna be annoying. They're not going anywhere,
but they're gonna be annoying, and they're gonna win a
few more games and they're gonna have to finish out

(11:32):
the string. I am just so interested to see where
this goes. But I am sorry, and unlike many of
the political pundits who came out there the day of
the election and said things were gonna go one way
and then they didn't and then just hit and turned
around and moved right along. I'm not I am apologizing.
I was wrong about the Jets, and I will wear it.

(11:53):
But I did say the Chiefs were gonna win the AFC,
and I did say the Packers were gonna win the NFC,
and I never never have strayed from either of those predictions.
All Right, we got a really interesting guest on the podcast.
This is like going to be educational. It's also going
to be kind of enlightening how it all goes down
when it comes to flex scheduling. Annie Bose from the NFL,

(12:15):
who is in the group that deals with schedules but
also how they flex and which networks get which games.
Over the next few weeks, he's going to join us
and I'm looking forward to it. Our guest today is

(12:36):
one of my favorite people at the NFL League office.
I actually think his job might be the coolest of
all the jobs at the league because he has a
major role and plays a major hand in how we
consume the game on Thursdays, Sundays, on Mondays, and even
Saturdays and Wednesdays. This year, his title is the NFL

(12:59):
Vice President of Broadcasting. But I almost wanted to bring
him on for a tutorial on how the schedule can
change over the next few weeks. He's a pal of mine.
I think you're really going to enjoy him. Everybody, let's
welcome to the podcast, mister Annie Bow's Annie. Welcome to
the season with Peter Schrager.

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Thanks Peter, appreciate that very kind and fun introduction. Always
love coming on with you guys on TV after the
schedule comes out in April or may so love being
on your podcast and looking forward to this.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Yeah, so this podcast is a little bit in the weeds.
I often say we will have head coaches, but we'll
also have like offensive line coaches, and we will have players.
But sometimes it's the best story. It's the kicker from
the Lions who was selling bricks over the summer, like
as opposed to having Matthew Stafford. And I take pride
in that. Now, this topic that I want to get

(13:50):
into with you is more than just the NFL's schedule release.
It is flex scheduling. I think a lot of us
look to flex schedule. We have no idea when we're
going to find it out, We have no idea the rules,
and I thought it would be cool to bring you
on as we have now eight weeks left in the
regular season to kind of go through flex scheduling, who
can do what, when we can do it, and what

(14:12):
we can anticipate. And as part of your job, if
you could just give the listeners your role. If you
were to say in an elevator speech, you meet somebody
at a conference and they said, annie, Bo's good to
meet you. I work at the NFL, how would you
sum up your job and your day to day duties
in season?

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Sure? First of all, you and I love this stuff,
so we can go deep into the weeds. It's always fun.
I can talk about this forever. So part of that
elevator pitch is that that you know, people love talking
about the NFL, and I love talking to them about it. So,
you know, my job, my day to day job. I
really oversee our relationships with our live game partners. I
used to say TV partners, but some of them aren't

(14:49):
TV anymore. But you know, so really managing the relationships
with Fox, CBS, ESPN, NBC, Amazon, YouTube. Now you know
the day to day of what the game looks on
TV looks like on TV from where they're putting cameras
out to you know, can we get interviews with players
before the game and everything else that goes into it.

(15:10):
It's a really fun thing that I feel pretty fortunate
to get to be a part of. And then, as
you alluded to, you know, a smaller group of our
broader broadcasting team, we are the ones who make the
NFL schedule and that's just a infinitely fascinating, challenging and
cool thing to get to do. And my realization is
that people love to talk about it. They love to

(15:31):
talk about it in May, they love to talk about
it now here in November. And feel very fortunate to
really be a part of that.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Yeah, and now we're at the point where flex scheduling
window is open. We've already seen two different primetime games
be flex. We've seen now a Vikings Colts game be
flex into primetime instead of Jaguars Eagles, and Jets Colts
was moved back down to the day window. And this
weekend we have a really cool and I said it
in the lead, it might not be a Ratings monster,

(16:00):
but a really cool and significant Bengals Chargers Joe Burrow
justin Herbert match up. I want to ask you, could
you take us through the flex process, how it's decided,
who decides it, and how it is determined and when
in the NFL schedule.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know you captured the two Sunday
night games. We flexed one other note, just you know,
interesting for us. We moved a Bears commander's game a
few weeks ago from an early to a late window
just to kind of capture that attention. And obviously we
know what happened in that game, but you know, that
attention on the first two picks in the draft and

(16:38):
those two young quarterbacks, it's an opportunity. We had to
put that into a bigger window too. So I think
what that gets at is that you know, we're always
looking when we make the schedule in May, and then
you know we have certain tools in place. Now let's
make sure we can get the most interesting, the biggest
games into those windows where most more of our fans
can see them. And we put a lot of time
and effort to that in May, and then you can't.

(17:00):
You know, your crystal ball is never perfect. It's usually
pretty cloudy. And now we have the opportunity and a
lot of tools in our toolbox to games into other places.
So you know, to answer your question, ultimately, as we say, right,
all scheduling decisions are ultimately made by the Commissioner of
the NFL. But our job is to kind of be
in the weeds, do the research, make recommendations to him.

(17:20):
And with that goal of just make let's make sure
as the season evolves, let's make sure that you know,
we're not going to flex a game just speak, for
the opportunity to get to quote unquote a better game.
But if a primetime game and we've had Sunday night
flex for a long time now really falls apart due
to kind of injuries or just teams really not hitting
our you know, expectation, and really both teams we have

(17:43):
that opportunity to flex. But the other core piece of
that too is we really look at what are the
teams who we didn't think about in May who have
played their way on so to speak, whether that's into
primetime or in the Bears commanders into a four to
twenty five window. Let's really use those opportunities to do that.
And so the two games you reference, right, the Vikings cults.

(18:03):
There cults at Vikings game. Right, you know, at the
time when we made that decision. The vikings were five
and zero and it was like, we don't have a
lot of prime time for them. We didn't really know
what to expect, and it was a great opportunity to
move them in there. And you know, again, you know,
it reflects on the game that was scheduled, and we
don't try to dwell on that, but what's our opportunity
And we'll look and the Commissioner himself will challenge us,
you know, what are the opportunities over the next few

(18:25):
weeks for the teams we didn't expect so on our radar,
you know, the Falcons at some point Denver at Arizona,
now right, where are the opportunities to you know, could
we flex if we have situations where we want to flex,
or can we get them wider distribution at one o'clock
or four o'clock. So we're always thinking about those things,
and we were generally meeting with the Commissioner on a

(18:45):
weekly basis looking ahead over the next few weeks. What
are our opportunities?

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Are there protection rules like could Fox and CBS, who
have these two windows in the daytime, say hey, hey,
primetime doesn't take prior to it, we pay our money too, like, yeah,
I know the Jets and the CBS bosses probably aren't
crying over losing Bengals Chargers this week because they have
that Bills a game and they also have that Raven
Steelers game. So what are the protections and are there

(19:11):
rules in place? Is it written or is it just
kind of we're going to talk it out.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
No, there's some pretty you know, well established rules. And
as you imagine when we do TV deals and you know,
everybody wants to protect the value of what what are
we getting, what's our package and things like that and
one hundred percent right right, you know, the four twenty
five window is really our traditionally biggest fewed windows, so
you know, we have to be very mindful of that,
and we also want to make sure we've got strong

(19:35):
games at one o'clock. You know, you're going to see
your home team if you're in that market, But if
you don't have a game, or you don't live in
an NFL market, we want to get you a great game.
We want Baltimore Pittsburgh to go pretty wide. It's a
huge game this weekend. So CBS and Fox, do you
get to protect the game. There's some other factors in
there too, where you know, one end of the divisional
games series are always going to be on there, So

(19:56):
there's a bunch of factors in play. So Baltimore Pittsburgh
for example, you know, uh, of course they protected KSE Buffalo,
but Baltimore Pittsburgh also because they have to get one
end of that was not a game we were necessarily
going to get into. But you know, you said it
at the top, you know, when we were looking at
that and what are the Jets and Colts and what
decision we're going to make? You know, the Bengals Chargers

(20:16):
is a great example of you know, here's a couple
of teams. You know, the Bengals are are you know,
frisky and playing well, and they're exciting and interesting, you know,
a whole bunch of kind of tough end of the
game losses, but an interesting team the Chargers in year
one under Jim Harbaugh, you know, really interesting. And then
just at the most kind of basic level, Burrow versus
Herb it feels like a fun game. You know, you

(20:39):
expect that to be something, so that really plays a
big factor in that decision one, is this a game
we're going to flex out of and two where are
we going to go? And we really felt really good
about that decision.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
I don't know if Cincinnati fans were buying flights and
then said, okay, well I'm going to get out that
and I like that. Stuff always comes up. Yeah, that's
usually on the same day. It gets a little tricky
when games are flexed to Monday night, are they Do
you have a bigger lead up time for when you're
flexing a Monday night game than a Sunday game.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah, So you know, look, and it's a great point, Peter.
We don't take this lately. We know that fans make
their plans and and you know, flex Sunday night to
Sunday afternoon and vice versa. Flex has happened for a
long time. You know, Monday night flex is something it
was new last year. It came into play with the
new TV contracts. It's something that was important as an
opportunity for ESPN. It's only later in the season. Okay,

(21:31):
I want to I want to say, I think it's
week twelve and onward, so where there's a little more
leeway on NBC, It's it's not a ton but you know,
we kind of talk about early in late season flex.
But you know, we focus at the end of the
year kind of right before and Thanksgiving through it's that
playoff run and let's really make sure those games that
matter have that opportunity. So you know, Sunday nights early

(21:53):
in the season, we make those flex decisions on two
weeks notice. That's why you knew about this two weeks notice. Okay,
Bengals Chargers game. Same for Monday Night. All Monday Night
games are on two weeks notice. As we get later
into the season forwards, the last couple weeks of the season,
we can do Sunday Night on one week notice, but
we do you know, we're very cognizant of the impact
on fans and so we don't take that lightly. And

(22:15):
so yes, for Monday Night game to flex, it would
be done two weeks out. We did have one last year.
We got out of that Casey New England game right
and we went into Eagles Seahawks. So you know, again,
not something that we're gonna do on a whim, but
you know, at the right place is let's ship those
games around and do them when it makes sense.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
Okay, So the Monday night schedule Houston at Dallas you're
not flexing out of that. It's Dallas. Houston's is still
relevant obviously. Baltimore at Chargers, you're not flexing out of that. Yeah,
Cleveland at Denver, Denver, let's watch air playoff team. The
one that gets interesting is this is this week fourteen,
December ninth, Bengals at Cowboys, where both teams could be

(22:56):
out of it. One of the teams could be out
of it. We don't have Dak Prescott anymore. And the
debate is would they ever flex out of a Disney
ESPN ABC Cowboys game. I'll put you to the put
the screws to you on this one. I think the
brand does matter a little bit for these companies, right.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, Look a couple things. First of all, right, you
know new for ESPN was the ability to get a
couple of teams twice a year over the last few years,
again part of the new deal. So they got, you know,
no surprise to two Chiefs games, two Cowboys games. These
mean these games mean a ton to them. You know,
we never say never, And look, I think from our
point of view, the Bengals are still right there in it.

(23:34):
The AFC could be in for a crazy finish we're
talking this morning about after last night. You know, the
Dolphins are still in it, right, you know, any any
turn of events, so you know, we don't think about
that game. Just ride the Bengals. You don't know, you
know where the Cowboys going to be in two three weeks.
You know they're not that far out of it, yes,
injuries and everything else, so you know, we're not looking

(23:56):
at that game. And again generally, we're always going to
look at the games and you know, what are the positives,
what are the reasons to stay? But you know, as
you mentioned right, you know that the Cowboys games are
something that whenever they show up on those schedules, are
are pretty meaningful.

Speaker 1 (24:10):
Okay, So then we didn't get any last year, and
there was a big hubbub over it in the media
and a lot of players speaking their minds about Thursday
night games being flex and how how could they do
that at such a money grabbing and then you you
didn't even utilize it last year. That's a big difference.
I think when you think you have a game on
a Sunday and you're like, no, actually you have a
game on a Thursday, are you guys a little bit more? Oh,

(24:32):
I don't know, it has to be a terrible matchup
for you to even consider that.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
A couple of things here and again to your point, right, so,
going from Sunday to a Monday certainly impactful. Going from
a Thursday to a Sunday, when you know, kind of
weekday to a weekend. We again we recognized that, and
you know, getting to Thursday Night Flex was a was
a you know, pretty detailed conversation, and you know, to

(24:56):
the point you made at the top, you know, kind
of what are the factors and the rules around it,
Thursday Night flex is even more complicated and even more
not taking it lightly. So couple of things. One as
part of kind of the agreement to do this, and
it's completely new and it came in last year. So
two years ago we didn't even have Monday Night flex.
Last year we added Monday night flex by contract, by

(25:19):
Thursday Night Flex by kind of discussion and you know,
basically the rule kind of the approaches we'd have to
do that four weeks out. So give your four the other.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
Ones out four weeks. Okay, that's very interesting.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
All right, Yeah, but the other piece to really keep
in mind is, you know, Thursday nights are very you know,
obviously limited. There's a lot of rules. It used to be,
you know, no one could play more than one short
week Thursday. We've modified that. We got to a place
where you can play, you can play two short week Thursdays,
and the teams have you know, really adapted to that,
but no more than two. And one of those things

(25:55):
is you're not going to play two road Thursdays. So
once you factor all that in, and you know, if
you looked at a game on a Thursday night to
ask yourself, could we you know, would the NFL flex
that game? You have to layer in all these other
factors that even the game you want to get to,
have those teams already played one or both of them
played there two thursdays, Has one of them already played

(26:16):
a road Thursday. There's a lot of you know, kind
of limiting factors in there. So you know, again, don't
take any flex decision lightly, but a Thursday one is
even more complicated.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Well, I'm looking at the Thursday night schedule, obviously that's
a beauty. This week, Washington at Philadelphia might be the
game of the week in the NFC YE Pittsburgh at
Cleveland's a divisional battle with Pittsburgh could be either seven
and three or eight and two. You're not changing that.
Raiders at Chiefs. Raiders beat the Chiefs last year on
Christmas in Arrowhead, so you're not changing that. Hackers at
Lions is awesome. Rams at Niners is one of the

(26:46):
great rivalries in the league. Cleveland at Cincinnati is a
little ugly, and it could be ugly since izs, But like,
I don't know, four weeks out, you would call Joe
Burrow's team the last week of the season in what
looks like could be a dog will be one to
Seattle at Chicago, but you still have Caleb Williams in
that game, and Seattle might be in the playoff, right, Like.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Both are right, That's right, And that's how we're always
going to look at it.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
Right.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
We're gonna be mindful of what's coming down the road,
but we're also going to be you know, we believe
in all our teams that we're going to be optimistic.
And so I don't think anybody's sitting here saying like, yeah,
we're circling any one of these games on any night
of the week is like, yeah, we we have to
you know, death definitively flex out of anything.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
At that point, the Jets got a lot of primetime games,
and now in hindsight, everyone's like, ah, we had too many.
We fell forward again. It was a second year in
a row. But like, is that a team that you
would ever flex out of? I feel like when they're good,
it's it's when they're fun to watch, and then like
if they're bad, like there are people that like watching them.
I'm looking at these here. You've got all these different
primetime games, but they've already a lot of them have

(27:48):
been played. You played five primetime games in the twenty ten,
twenty eleven, and twenty three season. This year they got
a record high six, Like the Jets. When you came
into this thing, obviously you thought a better season was ahead.
But even when they're.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
We listened to your your scouting reports.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
I trusting, But even when they're bad, their theater, right
or people just own that.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
No, Look, I put it yourself in our position right
when for going into the twenty three season, all the
excitement about Aaron coming to the Jets, and they had
great opponents, right, if you go back and look, you know,
fantastic opponents, and even you know, three plays in and
he's out for the year. They still got great viewership
and that team, you know, was there. So when when

(28:35):
we look at this year, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers,
it's the Jets. You know, how are you going to
look at that? How are you going to approach it?
They still have strong opponents the division. You know, we
expected it to be competitive, and I think we went
into it saying, you know, there there's just an opportunity,
and you're not gonna kind of forego that opportunity. And
that's the way we looked at it. And yeah, you know,

(28:57):
we flexed out of that game for this current week.
But you know, overall, the way we approached it in May,
I think we had to and when we listened to
the who believe in the Jets, and when the Jets
are good, it's it's fun and and that's a big thing,
you know, and attracts a lot of attention Aaron Rodgers
or any other quarterback. I think, you know, when when
the Jets and and the story around them and everything else,

(29:18):
and there was a lot of optimism there.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Yeah, and they won their two Thursday night games on
Amazon and Primetime, and they lost the two Monday night
games they lost the Niners. Those of the Bills they
have two others? Are those am I missing one? Did
they play Sunday night yet? Or are those two?

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Well? I think we just we flexed the Sunday night game.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
Okay, so there's probably one more as the season.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Somewhere out there.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
Yeah, okay, so then we have a flex here. Is
there any personal gratification when like those games that you
flex into on primetime like actually end up being better
games and more competitive, And to me, it's like, all right,
if we're gonna go through all this trouble, it better
actually work out.

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Sure. I mean, look, in general, I think, you know,
we love to kind of you know, when I when
a game like this past Sunday, What a great fun game,
and I left my hotel in UNI at halftime, and
you know, the Texans were dominating by the time I
got through security. I pulled it up on my phone
and I was seeing in the end. So yeah, we
love that. Look, when it comes down to it, ultimately,
we're fans too, right, We we love to see great

(30:17):
football and things like that. So whether it's a you know,
kind of Lions Texans that felt like such a cool
game last May and two teams on the rise and
you get that great game, or yes, if you flex
into a game and it really delivers and what you
hope for sure, you feel good about that. But you know,
things that are way out of our control. But we
try to be smart, we try to make decisions. And

(30:37):
like I said, we're fans too, So what do our
fans want to see? That's what we want to do.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, what is the rules of the divisional matchup? Because
I think it's kind of cool in viewers at home
and listeners at home might know. So CBS, we'll get
at least one of every AFC divisional matchup, meaning they're
going to at least get a Jets, Bills, They're going
to at least get the Colts, Titans, whatever it is.
And then and Fox on the NFC side, so you'll
never see you know, Niners Rams on primetime twice, or

(31:06):
you'll never see Cowboys Eagles on primetime twice. Fox is
always guaranteed at least one of the divisional matchups.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Right, that's how we go into it. Scheduling, Right, I
think there's been a lot of talk about kind of
in the new thing, you got Chiefs at Niners on Fox. Right,
kind of a classic? You know, huge AFC is the
road team game that would have been the centerpiece.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Of a CBS game when the NFC team is on
the road at AFC.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yes, that's right, and so we have that flexibility. You know,
the CBS is going to get X number of Chiefs games,
but it doesn't have to be just because they're the
road team, and we can do something cool like that,
or Eagles at Cowboys on CBS this past weekend. We
can do that too. But both Fox and CBS, it's
very important still to be the identity that we are

(31:55):
the network of the NFC and the network of the AFC.
And so one of the ways they do that is
every one of those divisional matchups, at least one of
them is going to be on our network, and that
was very important to them.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Okay, so then sorry for the thirty questions. You know,
I love this stuff. So Cowboys Eagles gets the big window.
Obviously we didn't know DAK would be out on CBS,
but that means, no matter what, the next Cowboys Eagles
game will not be on prime time because Fox has
to get one of those.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Right, That's right. And that's I think it's week seventeen
maybe cool, yep. And those are you know, some of
those huge divisional matchups or some of the first pieces
on the proverbial chessboard, and we look at those things.
And then when you have a division like the NFC
North this year, you know, it's really cool when almost
every combination of those games are pretty interesting. Right now, Yeah,

(32:42):
we have.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
A real rarity this weekend in the four o'clock window,
if we want to get in the weeds. CBS has
just one game and they're sending their pregame show, which
by the way, is on at twelve pm, four hours
before kickoff, which I think is a major commitment. Like
a lot of times you watch you know, Fox's big
noon kickoff, it's because it's right into the game. Or

(33:04):
college game day is one where they have to actually
wait till the kickoff. But you got CBS is sending
their pregame show to Buffalo to Orchard Park. I still
call it rich Stadium. That's very old. But yes, they'll
be there and it's the only game on CBS in
the four o'clock window. Did they have to work that
out with you guys? Did they negotiate with you with that.

(33:24):
Is that because of the flex situation? I think it's
still very rare to have a lone game on a
network in a window. Correct.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
Yeah, First of all, let's let's just talk about for
a second, a noon pregame show outside the stadium. You
think they're gonna have a pretty good crowd out there.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
I mean, come on, and we don't see that anymore.
I'm a historian on this stuff. Fox used to for
one year. For one year, Fox I think it was seven,
sent the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show to home sites
of games and they traveled and Joe Buck actually hosted
the show and then went in the booth and would
be the announcer. That feels like a distant memory the NFL.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, he was the original Kirk Curbsheet.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
He was before the Private Jets and all that. He
was there just walking up to the booth. Yeah. But honestly,
I think this is pretty rare that they're doing this.
Was Was it always known this was the only game
in the window or is that because of the flex
of Bengals.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Yeah, No, you're you're hitting a spot on right as
scheduled back in May Cincinnati Chargers was in that window
as well. So it's it's you know, it's it's somewhere
between uncommon and rare. It happens, and you look, if
there's any game that can stand alone right now at
four twenty five and you know, talk about do you
feel good or excited. Let's hope the game lives up

(34:38):
to it. But nine to zero Chiefs going to eight
and two Buffalo and feeling like this might determine who's
hosting that game at the end of January. Everything we
could hope for. We look at a game like this
and try to figure out where do you play it.
You don't want to play it too early, you don't
want to play it too late. Week eleven feels perfect
right now, so we'll you know, we hope it delivers.
But so you know that it stands alone. You know,

(35:01):
it happens. Sometimes it's absolutely a function of the flex
this particular week, and you know, let's hope it lives
up to all that.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
I had a really, really like good conversation with Kyle
Brandt offline when we were in the commercial break today
of like Keon Coleman, Amari Cooper, Dalton, Kincaid All these
guys are banged up, and then they've got the bye
week next week. It's the classic do you do you
arrest them or do you go I'm like for us
to be talking that way about a week eleven game

(35:29):
as if it's you know, so, I think it does
have those high stakes though.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Absolutely right. I mean, I think you can very clearly
kind of say, you know, if you whoever wins this game.
Obviously it's two game separation right now, but a long
way to go. But just is that the tiebreaker for
the number one seed. That's that's very much in play
all right.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Before we wrap, I want to go through just the
holiday times schedule because there's a couple of little wrinkles here.
We've got three Thanksgiving games, we have a Black Friday game,
then we have a Christmas Day game, but I think
the week before Christmas is like those teams have to
play on Saturdays. Let's first go through Thanksgiving slate. What
are the three games on Thanksgiving? And do you guys

(36:09):
put a lot of weight into those matchups before the
season or is that just hey, put a divisional matchup
against one of the teams then will take you know,
we'll take our shots at the other spots.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Yeah, look, Thanksgiving is a really interesting one for us
where you know, I think we've seen right just the
way it is such a part of the cultural fabric,
right those games, you know, the the Detroit and then
love now with just how exciting and fun the Lions are.
But even you know, over the years, right that game,
you know, twenty five thirty million viewers, and the Cowboys

(36:39):
game thirty five forty million viewers. So there's a lot
of schools of thought there of like, you know, could
you put any game in there? Should we put a
huge game in there? And we debate that a lot,
and our network partners have a lot of feelings about it.
But you know, Chicago and Detroit Giants in Dallas, you know,
classic Division games, and you know, you just feel like
you know, they're they they're going to be up for

(37:00):
that game. They're going to be competitive, and you know
we we love that. And you know, back in May
we Miami at Green Bay again, you know, Lambeau on
Thanksgiving feels fun and Dolphins coming off a win last night,
like I said earlier, right, they could be right back
in the way the AFC is. So you know, you know,
you know, we try to find that balance of like,
do you have to put the absolute biggest games on there?

(37:22):
You know, probably not. There's a really strong just built
in you know, yeah, built in you're with your family,
you're watching, but you want them to be meaningful and
feel good about them. Back in May when you have
to make these decisions.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
And then the next day the Friday. We brought this
out last year, and I could tell you from my sources,
the Jets would have loved to have had that be
like a Cowboys or Lions Thanksgiving thing. Jets would have
loved to have had Black Friday. Every take the Macy's
Day parade crowd, tell them to stay, hang out a bit,
but you guys said, thank you for your service. We're
gonna move right along and we'll give this to Kansas City.
So that game's an arrowhead on a Friday. And what's

(37:57):
that game?

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, same thing, right, Starting something new and you know,
going into a completely new window last year was a
lot to kind of contemplate. And you know, Miami and
the Jets again, back when we made that decision Division
game at the time, thinking Aaron was going to be
playing felt big in the New York market. The parade,
everything about it, and you know had to really understand,

(38:20):
you know, what's three o'clock on Black Friday, Like, there
was just no comparable to you know, what the viewership
was going to be. And it's still early, right, We're
still trying to build a tradition. And so you know,
in the same way that we went, you know with
the Jets, with the Dolphins, you know, kind of all right,
let's go as epic of a place in the league
as there is right now. Let's go to Arrowhead. Let's
see what that's going to be, you know, and again,

(38:41):
you know, matchup wise and everything else. No matter who
the Raiders are, they're going to take a lot of
prodown play that team. And we play back to the
Christmas Day game last year and there was a lot there,
and so you know, we fully expect that to be
a competitive game. And you know, the Chiefs aren't blowing
anyone out right now, so a competitive football game on
Black Friday should be a fun thing.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Sure. And then we get to those Christmas games which
are on Netflix. There are two of them, and I'm
looking at it now, it looks like it's the AFC Semifinals,
Like it's it's crazy. If you take Buffalo out of
the equation. You start off with a Pittsburgh Steelers team
that's maybe the best story in football right now hosting
the Kansas City Chiefs, and then at night you have
Texans Ravens. Two great games. That one's in Houston. What

(39:23):
was the ruling with that? Those teams? Then if they're
playing on a Wednesday, they couldn't play on the Sunday
from the previous week, so they both play on Saturday.
All four of them play on Saturdays. How's that work?

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, So this was one that was really interesting to
figure out, right just intuitively, and like, oh, the Athol's
not going to play on a Wednesday. You know, that's
just it doesn't happen. And you're right, it doesn't happen.
I don't I don't know what the stat is. We
haven't scheduled a Wednesday game in decades, you know. But
you know, look at the success we've had on Christmas
the last few years, you know, last year kind of
I think, averaging twenty six twenty seven million across those

(39:55):
those windows. And I think what our learning is Christmas
is another day like Thanksgiving, where you're with your families,
you know, whether you celebrate or not, it's everybody. You know,
it's a holiday, and there's a all built in market.
So the challenge to us from the commissioner was, how
are we going to figure this out? So you're right,
you can't play Sunday to Wednesday. You know, there's a
minimum amount of rest required between games. But Saturday to

(40:18):
Wednesday is the same as Sunday to Thursday. So this
just becomes one of those those four teams. This is
one of their short week Thursdays, and so that's that
excuse me, short week, short weeks, right, So it's just
a short week on a Wednesday, but Saturday to Wednesday
is doable. And then we had to find four teams

(40:38):
who played each other in a combination so that we
could get to those games. Right. So you you mentioned
the matchups on Christmas are fantastic, awesome, and then the
previous Saturday, we're playing one o'clock on NBC Houston at
Kansas City, pretty great game, Pittsburgh and Baltimore on Fox
at four thirty. And so we really liked that combination

(40:59):
back in April, and may we really like it now
here in November, talking about four teams who are just
all over it. And so that was, you know, and
this is the kind of the what the scheduling team
is challenged with. And there were maybe one or two
other combinations of four teams that we could have gotten to,
but that we got to this and that where we're
sitting right now, you feel, you know, you're pretty psyched

(41:21):
about that.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, And there was a ton of promotion into the
Peacock games on last year, both the regular season and
the playoffs. There was a ton of promotion this year
before that ESPN plus Monday Night game like go find
it Netflix, first time having it. I feel like we've
seen a lot, hurt a lot in this fight. This
weekend with Tyson and Paul is gonna, you know, be

(41:43):
a live event and I'm sure there'll be commercials for it.
Do you feel like the NFL has to like promote
the hell to that or that's one of those where
like everyone's got Netflix, they'll turn it on, they'll know
where to find it.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Look, I think it's both. Right. We can't take anything
for granted, right, because I think you can't underestimate kind
of whether, you know, especially if you're kind of watching
on cable satellite, just starting at the bottom and just
clicking up to you find the game, or if you're
watching on YouTube, TV or Hulu or something, you know,
they'll surface the game to you. But you cannot take
for granted that I you know, fans will know, yes,

(42:16):
this game is on Netflix, like we need to build
that awareness, and Netflix will build that awareness on their
own platform. And the most you know, one of the
interesting things when they first came to us and you know,
said hey, we'd like to do this is Christmas is
also their most view day of the year, is what
they told us.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
So wow, because everyone's on the couch, they're home.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah, that's right, exactly. So if you want to watch
the NFL and some great games, great, you're gonna find it.
If you want to watch whatever else you watch on Netflix,
but maybe you didn't know what the game was on
and you're like, oh, wow, let me watch Steelers Chiefs.
So no, look, like I said, we don't.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Planning on watching sing too. But wait a second, the
Texans are playing the Ravens. Do you mind? Yeah, okay,
go for it.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Yeah that's exactly cool. Yeah, yeah exactly. So you know, look,
it's it's a cool it's a great opportunity for us.
They really, you know, we want to to do this
together and it's a generally kind of a worldwide feed
and everything else. There's a lot going on there and
it's been a great kind of working through all this
to get that launched, and we're excited for what it's

(43:18):
going to be and Cherry on top. As you said,
great matchups, great matchups.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
I'll wrap with this. I always tell Mike North this.
I've told you this, I've pushed it on this podcast
multiple times. I've told Hans Schroeder this. I think there
should be a live program at the end of the
Sunday night game of week eighteen with cameras in the
executive's office at NBC, Mark Lazarus, I want Eric Shanks,

(43:49):
I want you know, CBS is David Berson, and ESPN
I guess right now is either Jimmy Pittaro or Burke Magnus.
I'm not sure who makes those decisions on their side,
but I would like cameras on all of these gentlemen
as they are given their playoff slates and their playoff fates,
which games they're getting. Is there any chance we can

(44:09):
get a live selection Sunday feel to the assignments of
which network gets which games, because I still think it's
one of the one of the great ideas that it's
just untapped in our.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Industry, that is deep, deep into the weeds there, and
maybe as bonus content you can get a spy on
our zoom. As we're making those decisions, I will tell
you that Sunday Night, Week eighteen, Sunday Night is a
fascinating one, and maybe Week seventeen Sunday Night because everything
in week eighteen is a black slate, right, that whole
schedule is TBD, and we're going to sequence Saturday doubleheader

(44:44):
on ESPN, ABC and then early late and Sunday night,
trying to build to Sunday Night as a win and
in game. But nothing at one o'clock is going to
render four o'clock, you know, meaningless, and nothing on Saturday
is going to render anything on Sunday meeting list, that's
a fun day because there's a million things to figure out,
and we start thinking about that, you know, a couple
of weeks before Christmas, like what's ahead of us we

(45:06):
got to be ready for. So those two Sundays a
lot of decisions to make, but a lot it's fun,
you know, you talk about the fun part of what
we do. And to your point, those executives on the
other end and all the fans, right, what's the matchup
go down? And you know what's the sequence of wild
Card weekend? Especially now that we're going across three days.
It's incredible, It's great.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Annie. As we wrap, I have so many people who
email me and say, oh, I've got a kid who's
a journalism major and wants to do what you do?
You mind having coffee with them? I am sure you
get a deluge of emails from people being like my
son or daughter would love to work for the NFL.
Sounds like you have a dream job and all this stuff.
What would be your advice for someone young or not

(45:47):
even someone young, someone who wants to make a career
change and get into this world and wants to do
what we do or and more specifically what you do
working for the league and working in this capacity. What
would be your advice to somebody trying to just get
all the ducks in a row and setting themselves up
for that opportunity.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
Yeah, I mean, first of all, Peter, you and I
talk about it, like you said, you know, we're buddies
and we'd like to text and joke about stuff, but
like we're so lucky. I get it. We are. We
are blessed, and I I think I'm thankful for that
every day. And my kids love to tell my wife
that Dad has to watch football on TV for a living,
and I'm like, okay, you know, like there there's a

(46:23):
lot worse things to do, so starting at that point,
and everybody's got an orange and story and a winding
road to where they got to. I think just my
general point of view and advice whether you know, especially
if you're young, but at any point, like if if
you if you want to go for it, just just
be open minded, be willing to kind of do just
about anything. Right. Not too many people land at the NFL,

(46:44):
and you know the Roger Goodell story started an intern
and become the commissioner. But if you get in somewhere
and you do the work and kind of you know,
people know you and like you, you just kind of
build on that and and go from there. And yeah,
you know, we're super lucky. You're right, you know, people
kind of reach out to you and you try to
share your experience. But the big the biggest thing is
just you know, one if if you have that opportunity,

(47:06):
unity and you can do it, go for it. But
just be be open minded. And maybe you don't want
to work in a certain thing, but if you get
in the door, you never.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Know where you go totally. And like I always said,
everyone like there's no job that's too small. But also
put yourself out there right, like there's no email you
can't send, Like I'm sure if you go through your
emails on you there was a version of me ten, fifteen,
twenty years ago who probably emailed you like, hey, I'd
love to get coffee. Can you talk about it? Because
I know I sent them to Peter O'Reilly for about

(47:35):
a decade so they do it.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
I'm a little older than you, so it was me
writing letters to every PR person in every league and
just you know, whatever, whatever you could take. And then
all takes is one to respond and you have that
opportunity and then you got to go make the most
of it.

Speaker 1 (47:50):
You know, it's funny. Heye, ta go it. And I
want to hear your story because I'm sure you have
someone that you can mention. But I once wrote an
email probably two thousand and four, two thousand and five,
hours out of college, I was freelance writing and I
wrote an email because I got his email somehow to
Jim Nance. And basically I was like writing articles for
Foxsports dot com or maybe not even maybe I was

(48:12):
writing for the Free Metro paper in New York. And
I wrote Jim Dance like email about how I'm from
New Jersey, You're from New Jersey. I just read the
book that you wrote about your father, and and that
started a you know, two three year email correspondence. And
every time Jim Nance was in New York, he would
hit me up and say, hey, do you want to
grab coffee? Like I'd be willing to do it too,

(48:32):
for some like people do respond. So I always tell
everyone like, it doesn't hurt to send an email. They
might not try to take you up on it, but
someone will.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Someone will, and that's all it takes. And you know,
my daughters are seventeen and fifteen, so what you got
to look forward to it and in a bunch of years,
but you know, they're great kids and they're going out
in the world and that just you know, whether it's
figuravely or literally stick your hand out say hello, you know,
engage with people that they really you know, like you said,
some may just it's not you know, it's not the
right day or time, and somebody may just connect and

(49:02):
you click and you never know totally.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
All right, this was all Annie Bo's. We're gonna have
you on a bunch more. This is so fun. I
feel like we just gave a tutorial to the listeners
on Fox scheduling. The bottom line is you're gonna get
as many big games as humanly possible in big windows,
and we're going to try to keep this thing as
competitive as possible for the national audiences as the season
goes on. Annie, I know you're a very busy guy,

(49:26):
so appreciated and have an amazing next few weeks, including
these holiday games. I know you're gonna be on the
road and you just got back from Munich, so it
means a lot for you to do the podcast with me.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
No, I appreciate it. Peter always enjoy talking to you,
whether it's offline or on the podcast. So anytime, anytime
you want, I'm happy to join you. And you know,
at the bottom line, you and I are fans. In
these next six to seven eight weeks are going to
be a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
No doubt. My prediction was Chiefs versus Packers. It's still flickering,
it's still alive. And I think Fox. I think Fox
would sign up for a Chiefs Packers super Bowl rehash
of Super Bowl one. That doesn't sound so bad.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
I think they'd be okay with that. I think the
Lions are such a fun, awesome story, you know that,
you know, get Bills and Josh Allen to get there
would be such a leap.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
So I think, did you imagine real quick? Could you
imagine the Bills fans and the Lions fans on Bourbon
Street for a week? I can't. Actually, I think we're
all gonna melt. Yeah, that's gonna be insane that happens.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Let's go who knows now, But no matter what, it's
gonna be fun.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah. Wait, all right, Honnie, thank you, buddy, you gotta beter.

Speaker 3 (50:29):
Thanks appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
All right, that's interesting. Honnie Bo's is a great dude.
He works in that same group as Mike North and
Hans Schroeder and the NFL's media group. But Aaron I
thought it was really interesting all of the different rules
and regulations and all the stuff that the parameters of
flex scheduling because it's not as easy as well, Sunday
night gets the best game. Now Fox and CBS they

(51:00):
pay a lot of money to make sure that they
get good games in their windows as well.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
I also I didn't realize is the rule of only
two short weeks, and if you're doing two short weeks,
only one of them can be a road game.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
There was so much.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I feel like some of these things I thought I knew,
and the more he got into it, like we're not
you know, the Wednesday games. It's okay if they played
on the Saturday because it's a short week, but not
on the Sunday. There's a lot more. The more I
hear about creating the schedule, the more incredibly intricate it becomes.

(51:37):
And now I understand why they sit in this room
all off season crafting it with so many different legs
and webs that weave together.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
The great Howard Katz used to be in charge of
it and still plays a role. But they say it's
an art and a science. So like the art of
it is like the fun stuff of like oh, Chiefs
play bills this weekend. The science of it is, Yes,
Chiefs play bill this weekend, but because we got a
flex of Chargers versus Bengals, we can now make it
the sole game. And if it's a sole game, and

(52:06):
let's end our pregame show like it's pretty cool stuff.
I'm fascinated by it. In another life, I would be
doing what Annie does. I find it really cool what
they do, and they've got great relationships and they also
wield a lot of power with the different networks, so
it's always interesting to see how those guys go back
and forth. That was a cool guest, and this is
gonna be a really cool week of NFL. Last week

(52:26):
was kind of a dud, but Thursday night was great
and the season with Peter Schrager delivering results presented by
Uber Eats. We give out a award and it's the
delivering results presented by Uber eats, where you can get
almost almost anything for game dates. The award for the
best performance of the week, and I'm giving it to
Lamar Jackson. I thought Lamar Jackson was simply awesome last

(52:47):
Thursday night at home in those purple Rising jerseys against
the Bengals, fading drifting, there's that beautiful touch pass touchdown
where he's almost looking like Steph Curry fading away. And
I love the uniforms. Thought those were cool. The Ravens
they hold serve with the Steelers and they've got a
huge showdown this weekend. Lamar Jackson so fun to watch him.

(53:08):
This year puts up huge numbers and now he's getting
it done in crunch time, which wasn't always the case,
and that was delivering results done by Uber Eats, where
you can get almost almost anything for game day, the
official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order. Now
I'll close with those matchups. I think if you just
sit at your TV on Thursday night, you're getting Commander's Eagles,

(53:30):
and then on Sunday in the one o'clock window, you
get your Steelers Ravens, in the four o'clock window, you
get your Bills Chiefs, and then if you leave it
all that night, you get that Bengals versus Chargers game.
That is a really cool Thursday and a really cool Sunday,
and I am here for all that. Aaron Wan Kaufman,
Jason English, thank you guys, and thanks to everyone who's listening.

(53:51):
Annie Bow's interesting guests. We'll do it again next week.
Have a good one, everybody. The Season with Peter Schrager

(54:14):
is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio.
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