NFL shortens time needed for Thursday night flex

NFL shortens time needed for Thursday night flex


PALM BEACH, Fla. — NFL owners have approved a tweak to league rules for flexing Thursday night games on Amazon Prime, reducing the window for notifying teams of a change to 21 days. The window had been 28 days since the rule was enacted in a contentious vote before the 2023 season.

Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president of media distribution, said the change will give the league a better opportunity to make a timely decision on potential flex decisions. Only one Thursday night game has been flexed since the 2023 vote, moving what had been a Sunday afternoon Week 16 game last season between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers to the previous Thursday night. The originally scheduled Thursday night game, between the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns, was moved to the following Sunday afternoon.

In 2023, some owners — particularly the New York Giants‘ John Mara — vehemently opposed allowing such a significant flex option even with a long window.

“Certainly, there are some people that are still not the biggest fans of it,” Schroeder said, “but an overwhelming number of membership approved it. We’re excited to have it. We think it’s a win for our fans and for Amazon moving forward.”

No other part of the Thursday flex rules changed. The league can flip a Sunday afternoon game into Thursday night and move the originally scheduled game to Sunday afternoon during Weeks 13 through 17. No team will be required to flex to a Thursday night game more than once, and the maximum number of Thursday night games will remain two per team. The Thursday night flex option can be applied no more than two times during the season.

The other potential NFL rule changes, including a proposal to ban the Philadelphia Eagles‘ tush push short-yardage play, are scheduled to be voted on Tuesday morning. Owners will also consider proposals to move the touchback on kickoffs to the 35-yard line, an expansion of the replay assist program and changing playoff seeding to feature team records rather than divisional titles.



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