Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

On a video of the last Sunday Night Football game on ESPN of the 2005 matchup between the then St. Louis Rams and Dallas Cowboys, someone noted how the playoff picture was completely settled before this game was played and it was the final regular season game of the season.

That got me thinking: If modern schedule flexing options were available to the networks, what are some other games you’d imagine they’d have flexed out of prime time television?

2005 Week 11 Vikings/Packers (GB was way below .500) would have been flexed out for what turned out to be a playoff preview in Panthers/Bears

The difficult thing about flex scheduling is that CBS and Fox are allowed to protect games from being flexed, and us fans aren't privy to how that works. So, I'm sure I could go to 1999's schedule and flex about 12 or 13 games, but as the season progressed, CBS and Fox might have protected Titans and Rams games. What I find amazing is when Monday Night Football games in Week 17 ended up being of prime importance, such as in 1995 for home-field in the NFC and in 1997 for the AFC East title. Those cases were just dumb luck.