Getty Head coach Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears talks with head coach Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers before the game at Soldier Field on December 04, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers have been NFL rivals for more than a century, but even they see eye-to-eye on league-related issues at times.
In his Football Morning in America column for April 3, veteran NFL insider Peter King dished on some of the happenings that took place at the 2023 NFL owners meetings in Phoenix during the final week of March and revealed the Bears and Packers were both among the teams that voted “no” against the NFL’s proposal to make Thursday night games — in Weeks 14 through 17 — eligible for being flexed with a Sunday matchup.
“The Giants, Jets, Chicago, New Orleans and Green Bay were among those who opposed the flex,” King wrote. ” For Green Bay, a ton of fans both follow them on the road and make bucket-list pilgrimages to Lambeau Field for games, and the Packers felt it unfair to have potentially thousands of fans be stuck with travel issues should a game be moved from Sunday to Thursday, or vice versa. Carolina and Denver abstained. With 24 votes needed for passage, the vote was 22 to 8 with the two abstentions. The NFL will arm-twist, most likely, prior to the next league session in late May, and unless the anti forces can muster some momentum, it’s likely the measure will pass then.”
King didn’t include specific reasons for why the Bears voted against the proposal, but it is likely similar reasoning to the Packers. Fans make travel plans to attend NFL games, sometimes months in advance, and there is a myriad of issues that could arise for them if the league were to gain the ability to flex games as far as three days from their originally scheduled slot. Unfortunately, King makes it sound like that will be their new reality before long with the NFL intent on pushing the plan forward.
NFL Already Planning to Add ‘MNF’ Flexes in 2023
The momentum behind giving Thursday Night Football flex scheduling might be a newly discussed issue, but the NFL’s interest in the plan isn’t terribly surprising. In fact, the league is already planning to add flex scheduling to Monday Night Football in 2023.
Last offseason, NFL Vice President of Broadcast Scheduling Mike North spoke with ESPN’s Adam Schefter and confirmed that Monday Night Football would be subject to flex scheduling between Weeks 14 and 17 beginning in the 2023 season. The idea — as is the case for the Thursday night proposal — is to avoid having a pair of losing teams duking it out in a prime-time slot when a better matchup could be flexed in to replace it.
“We’ll treat it just like we treat Sunday night,” North told Schefter. “We’re gonna put a game on the schedule, and it’s gonna be a game that we’re counting on, and planning on and expecting to play. We wouldn’t have put it there otherwise. Everybody’s got this notion of all the uncertainty about Sunday night flex. We flex, maybe, once a year. We didn’t flex at all [in 2021], certainly not in December.”
On the bright side for traveling fans, a flip from Sunday to Monday is a little more manageable than the three-day difference that would come with Thursday night flexes, but both flex options would still cut into the standard work week and could create some potential problems for those who have altered their schedules to attend a game.
Giants’ John Mara ‘Adamantly Opposed’ to TNF Flex
The Bears and Packers might have both voted “no” on the NFL’s flex proposal, but no owner has been as strongly opposed to the idea as New York Giants boss John Mara. During his talk with reporters at the annual meetings, Mara blasted the NFL’s proposal to start flexing games into the Thursday night slot and called it “abusive” to the fans.
“Flexible scheduling, as it is, is really inconsiderate to our season ticket holders and to people who fill our stadiums every week,” Mara said, via Pat Leonard of the New York Daily News. “People have gotten used to going from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night. That doesn’t mean that they like it. … This year, we can be flexed to Monday night, which I think is really inconsiderate to our ticket holders. But to flex a game back to Thursday night to me is just abusive, and I am adamantly opposed to it.”
As opposed as Mara and others might be to the plan, though, the NFL has already begun to start laying the groundwork for them to eventually open up Thursday night games to a flexible schedule. Not only did last year’s Monday night decision help them take the first step, but the league also approved allowing teams to have a maximum of two games played on Thursday — excluding both Thanksgiving and opening week — which serves as an important step toward their end goal with Thursday flexes.