The NFL Network Needs to Evolve

I woke up this Sunday excited for a day full of football.  There are few things greater than waking on Sunday morning and slumping downstairs with sleep still crusted in bleary eyes, hair uncombed and unkempt, slippers on chilly toes, then channel flipping between two football games.  Today, however, I have only been able to watch one game at a time.  Now I understand that when the Broncos play in Colorado, no other games are aired to force people to watch the home team.  That's at least understandable.  They did the same thing in Minnesota for the Vikings.  But on top of that, for some reason, CBS decided to not air an early game.  I was forced to watch the Falcons-Bears game with was pretty awful until the final five minutes of the game.  Boring football games happen more often than one would think, but usually the sanctity of the sport is saved by flipping back and forth between two channels.

Before I move on to the meat of this article, here are a few reasons why channel flipping between two football games is better than watching one.

1.  You get to see twice as much football.

2.  If one game is really good, you can watch it.  If one game is bad, you don't have to watch it. 

3.  You get to see more fantasy players play and (hopefully) produce.

4.  You diminish the number of total commercials watched.

5.  There are usually about 25-35 seconds between each play in football, and each play usually lasts less than 10 seconds.  This means ideally you can watch most plays of both games if you are really skilled with the remote.

When there is only one game on network television, I think the NFL Network should step in and show an extra game each week.  Sit down with FOX, CBS, and the NFL and make something good happen for the football fans.  If people are paying extra money for the NFL Network, shouldn't they show more football games?  I know things are probably complicated with contracts and game rights, but it seems very possible for the NFL Network to show a game that is not being shown on the other stations, the game changing depending on the region.  For example, all other games are blacked out in Colorado during the Broncos game, except now that the NFL Network did some creative negotiating, there is another game on the tube if you pay your NFL Network fee.  How great would that be?  No longer would anyone who loves football be forced to watch only one game at a time for a small fee.  Never again would I have to channel switch between Planet Earth and a football game.  Neither program had quite the beauty or charm when sharing screen time with the other.