The flex schedule has been a godsend to NBC. Sunday Night Football is the marquee NFL property and for that reason, the league can flex games that are deemed to be more entertaining to the powers that be. Week 16 should have a game flexed into SNF that has playoff ramifications. Instead, we are still stuck with the Chiefs-Bears game. The Bears were officially eliminated from playoff contention this Sunday.
Let’s be honest, the Bears have essentially been eliminated from real playoff contention for a while. The league knew this. NBC knew this. Still, nothing was done. There are rules regarding what games can be flexed — Cowboys Wire does a great job breaking it down here — but those rules only really take away the Saints-Titans game from being flexed.
There’s an obvious choice for a flex game that hits on every necessary rule created by the NFL: Cowboys-Eagles. It’s a late afternoon game. It’s a game between two teams that have a shot at the playoffs. It’s essentially an NFC East championship game. Both teams played on Sunday during a normal timeslot so it’s not like one team has a greater scheduling advantage. This is the one time that fans that aren’t interested in Dallas or Philadelphia as their favorite team are openly clamoring for the NFC East to be put on primetime. It’s amazing this game wasn’t flexed.
The only thing that makes sense is that Fox used some leverage to make sure this game wasn’t moved to the SNF slot. The Chiefs are a nice draw, but they aren’t as popular as Dallas in primetime. The Bears are a big market, but Dallas and Philadelphia are also in the top-10. Plus, Bears fans aren’t invested anymore since their season is officially finished.
So we get a meaningless game on Sunday night. That’s kind of odd.