The Season with Peter Schraeger is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, Welcome to the Season with Peter Schrager. We're here in week eleven. We had a bit of a bye week last week. I figured it was election week. Well, we'll let you listen to that stuff and we'll take the week off. It wasn't this great of a slate that we have
in week eleven. And as we look towards these games, I am counting on my hands four different awesome matchups like Chiefs versus Bills is amazing to have in any week, and it's Week eleven where the stakes couldn't be higher. And yet I don't even know if that's the game of the week because on Thursday night you've got Eagles
commanders first time they're playing this season. And then you also have a Steelers Ravens game, where the Steelers schedule is so interesting they haven't even played a divisional and we're entering mid November. The Steelers still have you know, obviously they got to play the Ravens this weekend. They're gonna play Bengals twice, Browns twice, and the Ravens again, and the other one is Sunday Night one that I think it's really interesting over the last couple of weeks because
of the way the teams have performed. The Bengals offense has exploded, and though they lost last Thursday, there's still four and six and they're going up against a very good, very hot Chargers team on Sunday Night and again that I can't imagine is going to be a ratings bonanza when you have the Chargers and the Bengals square and off. But you better believe I'll be watching. They'll be good. I have so many thoughts about this week. Where do
I begin. Let's start with a little unpacking of what happened today in Chicago, and I put this on social media. I said a little bit on Good Morning Football, but this is my podcast. Could talk a little bit more about it. I'm not angry about it. It happens. Teams don't go through the process and always have it all
work out. But I look at my friend and a guy who I thought was I don't know, I thought he was not as highly coveted as he should have been over this hiring cycle in Cliff Kingsbury, and I look at his path of how things went in January, once he made it known that after a year away from the NFL and working with Caleb Williams at USC and basically a pro bono gig for Lincoln Riley just so he could work with Caleb Williams and and you know, I have an opportunity to go back to his roots
and work with a star quarterback and build an offense. Cliff made it known that he was ready to come back to the NFL if there was an appropriate offer or taker. He thought he was going to Vegas. They brought him in for an interview. He hit it off with Antonio Pears. They brought him back to Vegas. He hit it off with Tom to LESCo, the GM And from what I am told, and it's not directly from Cliff,
but this is pretty well known. The years on the contract, there was a miscommunication as to what was expected and offered. And standard standard deals are three year deals for coordinators. Now I don't know what Antonio Pierce's deal is. You certainly wouldn't want a coordinator's job to be longer than the head coach's job, and there might have been something there, but the three year deal was not offered in Vegas,
so Cliff did not take that job. Earlier in the process, the Chicago Bears flew out to California and met with Cliff at a hotel and they met for many hours, and he said they obviously meant he wanted to be the OC of the Bears, or at least have an offer from the Bears. He had Caleb Williams in college. They were obviously taking Caleb Williams first. Overall, they knew that in their heads, and they met with them for several hours and at the end of it there was
no offer made. I point to those two teams because you have two teams who are obviously going into the draft and going into the season with giant questions at quarterback, but with hopes at the quarterback position. And Cliff has proven at the very least, if you don't think he's a good head coach, it's fine, But through Mahomes and through experience with Kyler Murray in those first few years, and of course what we're seeing with Jayden Daniels now.
But like at the very least, he's great with young quarterbacks, and he's great with drawing up offense and great speaking with quarterbacks and if he's not gonna be your head coach, I think he's a worthy candidate to consider it for offensive coordinator. Raiders say they don't want to give him that commitment. Years wise, they move on. They hire Guy luke Getzy. Luke Getzy was fired eight weeks into the first year of a three year deal which they did
give luke Getzy. First month of the season did not go well. Second month of the season, he didn't survive it. Luke Getzy was fired before Halloween. The Raiders passed on Kingsbury over years on a contract. Okay, the Bears, Caleb william is going to be the quarterback. Caleb Bincliff have a great relationship. They already have a year under their
belt together. The Bears. They decide that after meeting with Cliff, Shane Waldron, who was in Seattle last year, was the more appropriate pick and that that was going to be their guy. And Shane Waldron, who had I think very little history with Matt Abraflus, he was the guy. Well, Shane Waldron's been fired as of today, and that's ten weeks into the season. He didn't last to Thanksgiving either. That's the first year of a contract as well. Both of those guys, Getsy and Waldron will be paid out
the remainder of their contracts. They'll be paid in full. They'll be taken care of. They'll be making millions and millions of dollars. Kingsbury, who also interviewed with Philadelphia. Ironically they went with Kellen Moore. Ironically they're going to be the division they're playing Thursday night. Cliff did not get offered the job in Philly either. He goes to Washington. It all works out. Everyone's happy, and it's great, and Jaden's having success. But I go back to how important
a young quarterback and who you pair him with is. Now, would the Raiders offense be sputtering if Cliff Kingsbury was with Gardner, Minshew and O'Connell. Maybe would the Bears offense be worse with Kingsbury? I doubt it, I really do. Would the Washington commanders be just as good with Shane Waldron or Luke Etzi. I don't think so. I'm not in the business of hiring coaches. I don't know the mechanics behind it all. I do know the importance of a young quarterback. I do know the importance of a
good quarterback. Mine. I do know the importance of an offensive coordinator, and sometimes I could see it a mile away. This one, to me was wild that the Bears didn't consider Cliff. It was surprising to me that the Raiders thought that they should, you know, have issues with the contract, or that Cliff would be okay taking a hometown discount, whatever it was, when they had such a giant, voided quarterback. So those teams go back to the drawing boards. Cliff
now is the obviously the offensive coordinator Jayden Daniels. That's going well. And I'm not saying Cliff needs to be a head coach next year. In fact, I don't even know if he's going to be a head coach or is gonna get in interviews. I don't, But I know he's a good offensive coordinator, and I know those players like him, and I know that Commander's offense looks pretty good. What's my point. It's sliding doors, it's ships in the night,
it's all this stuff. But like those decisions, those decisions can separate a young quarterback from having great success, and a team from having great success from being you know, back at the drawing board. And now we're going to our second or third or fourth option to run our offense. You could say I'm a Kingsbury fanboy. You could say what I want, or I'm just taking care of my friends and saying this stuff. I genuinely believe he's very respected around the league. And I also don't make a
single dollar off saying that. You know, I'm not bought and paid for by anybody. I just cover the league. I watch the league, and I think Cliff and Caleb would have been a great mix, but that wasn't the direction the Bears wanted to go. All right, So that's the Bears and their season's not done, but it's going the wrong way, and I don't know. Maybe i'm a pessimist. I don't know if they suddenly turn it on and
last year, I'll say it like it is. Last year, I thought the Bills were going in the wrong direction. They fired an offensive coordinator, Joe Brady came in, and that team soared all the way to an AFC divisional round game where they were hosting it and they won the division and the whole thing. So maybe it could happen, but I just I don't know. With a rookie quarterback and Thomas Brown doesn't have the same pedigree maybe that Joe Brady had, who obviously was with LSU and then
was with the Panthers and had that whole stuff. All Right, then there's the Jets, and I want to use the next few minutes to address the millions of Jets fans out there who a had to sit through Sunday's horrendous thirty one to six loss to the Cardinals, and to be the thousands of people online who tweet me every single day and say that led them astray by telling them that the Jets would be the number one seed in the AFC and Aaron Rodgers would be MVP this year.
It was a bad call. It was a horrendous call. This is my maya kopa. I'm doing it on November. What day is today?
Er?
November eight? What do we got? I don't even know. Twelfth Tuesday, Tuesday the twelfth, a week after the election, when a lot of other people who are paid a lot more money than me got a lot of different things wrong on television. I will say this, I am sorry. I led you astray. If you use my prognostication as a as a fuel for optimism and you feel misled. I apologize if you use my prognostication to I don't know, make a small wager somewhere with one of those companies
that may or may not sponsor this podcast. I am sorry about that. It ain't happening, it's done. I'm sorry. And yet they still have all these games to play, and I'm fascinated to see how it plays out. Rogers still does McAfee every week for like a long time. They still have Rogers under contract, they still have all of these veterans that they have signed. Devontae Adams is under contract, like they have to. Hey, Sauce Gardner, who's having a season that I don't think even in his
worst nightmares Sauce Gardner would imagine. They have to figure out Garrett Wilson's deal. They're gonna have a high draft pick. Do they take a quarterback, do they bring back Joe Douglas, can he salvage his job? Or is it even in jeopardy? I don't even know. Okay, Well, Trump just won the presidency. The last time Trump won, Woody Johnson went over to the UK and served as the ambassador for the United States in the UK for four years and his younger
brother Christopher ran the team. Is that happening again? The Jets are still very interesting. They might not be good, they might not be watchable, but they're still very interesting. And how the next few weeks play out, and as we head towards December when they might be spoilers for a lot of teams on the schedule, because you know, Rogers is gonna get a few of these squads. You know, Rogers is gonna pick and pluck you. They're gonna beat one of these teams, like they play the Rams in
late December. I'm not putting anything out there, but like, I feel like that might be a game. They play the Seahawks Thanksgiving weekend, Like that might be a game. The Jets are gonna be annoying. They're not going anywhere, but they're gonna be annoying, and they're gonna win a few more games and they're gonna have to finish out the string. I am just so interested to see where
this goes. But I am sorry, and unlike many of the political pundits who came out there the day of the election and said things were gonna go one way and then they didn't and then just hit and turned around and moved right along. I'm not I am apologizing. I was wrong about the Jets, and I will wear it. But I did say the Chiefs were gonna win the AFC, and I did say the Packers were gonna win the NFC, and I never never have strayed from either of those predictions.
All Right, we got a really interesting guest on the podcast. This is like going to be educational. It's also going to be kind of enlightening how it all goes down when it comes to flex scheduling. Annie Bose from the NFL, who is in the group that deals with schedules but also how they flex and which networks get which games. Over the next few weeks, he's going to join us and I'm looking forward to it. Our guest today is one of my favorite people at the NFL League office.
I actually think his job might be the coolest of all the jobs at the league because he has a major role and plays a major hand in how we consume the game on Thursdays, Sundays, on Mondays, and even Saturdays and Wednesdays. This year, his title is the NFL Vice President of Broadcasting. But I almost wanted to bring him on for a tutorial on how the schedule can change over the next few weeks. He's a pal of mine. I think you're really going to enjoy him. Everybody, let's
welcome to the podcast, mister Annie Bow's Annie. Welcome to the season with Peter Schrager.
Thanks Peter, appreciate that very kind and fun introduction. Always love coming on with you guys on TV after the schedule comes out in April or may so love being on your podcast and looking forward to this.
Yeah, so this podcast is a little bit in the weeds. I often say we will have head coaches, but we'll also have like offensive line coaches, and we will have players. But sometimes it's the best story. It's the kicker from the Lions who was selling bricks over the summer, like as opposed to having Matthew Stafford. And I take pride in that. Now, this topic that I want to get into with you is more than just the NFL's schedule release. It is flex scheduling. I think a lot of us
look to flex schedule. We have no idea when we're going to find it out, We have no idea the rules, and I thought it would be cool to bring you on as we have now eight weeks left in the regular season to kind of go through flex scheduling, who can do what, when we can do it, and what we can anticipate. And as part of your job, if you could just give the listeners your role. If you were to say in an elevator speech, you meet somebody at a conference and they said, annie, Bo's good to
meet you. I work at the NFL, how would you sum up your job and your day to day duties in season?
Sure? First of all, you and I love this stuff, so we can go deep into the weeds. It's always fun. I can talk about this forever. So part of that elevator pitch is that that you know, people love talking about the NFL, and I love talking to them about it. So, you know, my job, my day to day job. I really oversee our relationships with our live game partners. I used to say TV partners, but some of them aren't TV anymore. But you know, so really managing the relationships
with Fox, CBS, ESPN, NBC, Amazon, YouTube. Now you know the day to day of what the game looks on TV looks like on TV from where they're putting cameras out to you know, can we get interviews with players before the game and everything else that goes into it. It's a really fun thing that I feel pretty fortunate
to get to be a part of. And then, as you alluded to, you know, a smaller group of our broader broadcasting team, we are the ones who make the NFL schedule and that's just a infinitely fascinating, challenging and cool thing to get to do. And my realization is that people love to talk about it. They love to talk about it in May, they love to talk about it now here in November. And feel very fortunate to really be a part of that.
Yeah, and now we're at the point where flex scheduling window is open. We've already seen two different primetime games be flex. We've seen now a Vikings Colts game be flex into primetime instead of Jaguars Eagles, and Jets Colts was moved back down to the day window. And this weekend we have a really cool and I said it in the lead, it might not be a Ratings monster, but a really cool and significant Bengals Chargers Joe Burrow
justin Herbert match up. I want to ask you, could you take us through the flex process, how it's decided, who decides it, and how it is determined and when in the NFL schedule.
Yeah, absolutely, And you know you captured the two Sunday night games. We flexed one other note, just you know, interesting for us. We moved a Bears commander's game a few weeks ago from an early to a late window just to kind of capture that attention. And obviously we know what happened in that game, but you know, that attention on the first two picks in the draft and those two young quarterbacks, it's an opportunity. We had to
put that into a bigger window too. So I think what that gets at is that you know, we're always looking when we make the schedule in May, and then you know we have certain tools in place. Now let's make sure we can get the most interesting, the biggest games into those windows where most more of our fans can see them. And we put a lot of time and effort to that in May, and then you can't. You know, your crystal ball is never perfect. It's usually
pretty cloudy. And now we have the opportunity and a lot of tools in our toolbox to games into other places. So you know, to answer your question, ultimately, as we say, right, all scheduling decisions are ultimately made by the Commissioner of the NFL. But our job is to kind of be in the weeds, do the research, make recommendations to him.
And with that goal of just make let's make sure as the season evolves, let's make sure that you know, we're not going to flex a game just speak, for the opportunity to get to quote unquote a better game. But if a primetime game and we've had Sunday night flex for a long time now really falls apart due to kind of injuries or just teams really not hitting our you know, expectation, and really both teams we have
that opportunity to flex. But the other core piece of that too is we really look at what are the teams who we didn't think about in May who have played their way on so to speak, whether that's into primetime or in the Bears commanders into a four to twenty five window. Let's really use those opportunities to do that. And so the two games you reference, right, the Vikings cults. There cults at Vikings game. Right, you know, at the
time when we made that decision. The vikings were five and zero and it was like, we don't have a lot of prime time for them. We didn't really know what to expect, and it was a great opportunity to
move them in there. And you know, again, you know, it reflects on the game that was scheduled, and we don't try to dwell on that, but what's our opportunity And we'll look and the Commissioner himself will challenge us, you know, what are the opportunities over the next few weeks for the teams we didn't expect so on our radar, you know, the Falcons at some point Denver at Arizona, now right, where are the opportunities to you know, could we flex if we have situations where we want to flex,
or can we get them wider distribution at one o'clock or four o'clock. So we're always thinking about those things, and we were generally meeting with the Commissioner on a weekly basis looking ahead over the next few weeks. What are our opportunities?
Are there protection rules like could Fox and CBS, who have these two windows in the daytime, say hey, hey, primetime doesn't take prior to it, we pay our money too, like, yeah, I know the Jets and the CBS bosses probably aren't crying over losing Bengals Chargers this week because they have that Bills a game and they also have that Raven Steelers game. So what are the protections and are there rules in place? Is it written or is it just kind of we're going to talk it out.
No, there's some pretty you know, well established rules. And as you imagine when we do TV deals and you know, everybody wants to protect the value of what what are we getting, what's our package and things like that and one hundred percent right right, you know, the four twenty five window is really our traditionally biggest fewed windows, so you know, we have to be very mindful of that, and we also want to make sure we've got strong
games at one o'clock. You know, you're going to see your home team if you're in that market, But if you don't have a game, or you don't live in an NFL market, we want to get you a great game. We want Baltimore Pittsburgh to go pretty wide. It's a huge game this weekend. So CBS and Fox, do you get to protect the game. There's some other factors in there too, where you know, one end of the divisional games series are always going to be on there, So
there's a bunch of factors in play. So Baltimore Pittsburgh for example, you know, uh, of course they protected KSE Buffalo, but Baltimore Pittsburgh also because they have to get one end of that was not a game we were necessarily going to get into. But you know, you said it at the top, you know, when we were looking at that and what are the Jets and Colts and what decision we're going to make? You know, the Bengals Chargers is a great example of you know, here's a couple
of teams. You know, the Bengals are are you know, frisky and playing well, and they're exciting and interesting, you know, a whole bunch of kind of tough end of the game losses, but an interesting team the Chargers in year one under Jim Harbaugh, you know, really interesting. And then just at the most kind of basic level, Burrow versus
Herb it feels like a fun game. You know, you expect that to be something, so that really plays a big factor in that decision one, is this a game we're going to flex out of and two where are we going to go? And we really felt really good about that decision.
I don't know if Cincinnati fans were buying flights and then said, okay, well I'm going to get out that and I like that. Stuff always comes up. Yeah, that's usually on the same day. It gets a little tricky when games are flexed to Monday night, are they Do you have a bigger lead up time for when you're flexing a Monday night game than a Sunday game.
Yeah, So you know, look, and it's a great point, Peter. We don't take this lately. We know that fans make their plans and and you know, flex Sunday night to Sunday afternoon and vice versa. Flex has happened for a long time. You know, Monday night flex is something it was new last year. It came into play with the new TV contracts. It's something that was important as an
opportunity for ESPN. It's only later in the season. Okay, I want to I want to say, I think it's week twelve and onward, so where there's a little more leeway on NBC, It's it's not a ton but you know, we kind of talk about early in late season flex. But you know, we focus at the end of the year kind of right before and Thanksgiving through it's that playoff run and let's really make sure those games that
matter have that opportunity. So you know, Sunday nights early in the season, we make those flex decisions on two weeks notice. That's why you knew about this two weeks notice. Okay, Bengals Chargers game. Same for Monday Night. All Monday Night games are on two weeks notice. As we get later into the season forwards, the last couple weeks of the season, we can do Sunday Night on one week notice, but we do you know, we're very cognizant of the impact
on fans and so we don't take that lightly. And so yes, for Monday Night game to flex, it would be done two weeks out. We did have one last year. We got out of that Casey New England game right and we went into Eagles Seahawks. So you know, again, not something that we're gonna do on a whim, but you know, at the right place is let's ship those games around and do them when it makes sense.
Okay, So the Monday night schedule Houston at Dallas you're not flexing out of that. It's Dallas. Houston's is still relevant obviously. Baltimore at Chargers, you're not flexing out of that. Yeah, Cleveland at Denver, Denver, let's watch air playoff team. The one that gets interesting is this is this week fourteen, December ninth, Bengals at Cowboys, where both teams could be out of it. One of the teams could be out
of it. We don't have Dak Prescott anymore. And the debate is would they ever flex out of a Disney ESPN ABC Cowboys game. I'll put you to the put the screws to you on this one. I think the brand does matter a little bit for these companies, right.
Yeah, Look a couple things. First of all, right, you know new for ESPN was the ability to get a couple of teams twice a year over the last few years, again part of the new deal. So they got, you know, no surprise to two Chiefs games, two Cowboys games. These mean these games mean a ton to them. You know, we never say never, And look, I think from our point of view, the Bengals are still right there in it. The AFC could be in for a crazy finish we're
talking this morning about after last night. You know, the Dolphins are still in it, right, you know, any any turn of events, so you know, we don't think about that game. Just ride the Bengals. You don't know, you know where the Cowboys going to be in two three weeks. You know they're not that far out of it, yes, injuries and everything else, so you know, we're not looking at that game. And again generally, we're always going to look at the games and you know, what are the positives,
what are the reasons to stay? But you know, as you mentioned right, you know that the Cowboys games are something that whenever they show up on those schedules, are are pretty meaningful.
Okay, So then we didn't get any last year, and there was a big hubbub over it in the media and a lot of players speaking their minds about Thursday night games being flex and how how could they do that at such a money grabbing and then you you didn't even utilize it last year. That's a big difference. I think when you think you have a game on a Sunday and you're like, no, actually you have a
game on a Thursday, are you guys a little bit more? Oh, I don't know, it has to be a terrible matchup for you to even consider that.
A couple of things here and again to your point, right, so, going from Sunday to a Monday certainly impactful. Going from a Thursday to a Sunday, when you know, kind of weekday to a weekend. We again we recognized that, and you know, getting to Thursday Night Flex was a was a you know, pretty detailed conversation, and you know, to the point you made at the top, you know, kind of what are the factors and the rules around it, Thursday Night flex is even more complicated and even more
not taking it lightly. So couple of things. One as part of kind of the agreement to do this, and it's completely new and it came in last year. So two years ago we didn't even have Monday Night flex. Last year we added Monday night flex by contract, by Thursday Night Flex by kind of discussion and you know, basically the rule kind of the approaches we'd have to do that four weeks out. So give your four the other.
Ones out four weeks. Okay, that's very interesting.
All right, Yeah, but the other piece to really keep in mind is, you know, Thursday nights are very you know, obviously limited. There's a lot of rules. It used to be, you know, no one could play more than one short week Thursday. We've modified that. We got to a place where you can play, you can play two short week Thursdays, and the teams have you know, really adapted to that, but no more than two. And one of those things
is you're not going to play two road Thursdays. So once you factor all that in, and you know, if you looked at a game on a Thursday night to ask yourself, could we you know, would the NFL flex that game? You have to layer in all these other factors that even the game you want to get to, have those teams already played one or both of them played there two thursdays, Has one of them already played a road Thursday. There's a lot of you know, kind
of limiting factors in there. So you know, again, don't take any flex decision lightly, but a Thursday one is even more complicated.
Well, I'm looking at the Thursday night schedule, obviously that's a beauty. This week, Washington at Philadelphia might be the game of the week in the NFC YE Pittsburgh at Cleveland's a divisional battle with Pittsburgh could be either seven and three or eight and two. You're not changing that. Raiders at Chiefs. Raiders beat the Chiefs last year on Christmas in Arrowhead, so you're not changing that. Hackers at Lions is awesome. Rams at Niners is one of the
great rivalries in the league. Cleveland at Cincinnati is a little ugly, and it could be ugly since izs, But like, I don't know, four weeks out, you would call Joe Burrow's team the last week of the season in what looks like could be a dog will be one to Seattle at Chicago, but you still have Caleb Williams in that game, and Seattle might be in the playoff, right, Like.
Both are right, That's right, And that's how we're always going to look at it.
Right.
We're gonna be mindful of what's coming down the road, but we're also going to be you know, we believe in all our teams that we're going to be optimistic. And so I don't think anybody's sitting here saying like, yeah, we're circling any one of these games on any night of the week is like, yeah, we we have to you know, death definitively flex out of anything.
At that point, the Jets got a lot of primetime games, and now in hindsight, everyone's like, ah, we had too many. We fell forward again. It was a second year in a row. But like, is that a team that you would ever flex out of? I feel like when they're good, it's it's when they're fun to watch, and then like if they're bad, like there are people that like watching them. I'm looking at these here. You've got all these different primetime games, but they've already a lot of them have
been played. You played five primetime games in the twenty ten, twenty eleven, and twenty three season. This year they got a record high six, Like the Jets. When you came into this thing, obviously you thought a better season was ahead. But even when they're.
We listened to your your scouting reports.
I trusting, But even when they're bad, their theater, right or people just own that.
No, Look, I put it yourself in our position right when for going into the twenty three season, all the excitement about Aaron coming to the Jets, and they had great opponents, right, if you go back and look, you know, fantastic opponents, and even you know, three plays in and he's out for the year. They still got great viewership and that team, you know, was there. So when when we look at this year, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers, it's the Jets. You know, how are you going to
look at that? How are you going to approach it? They still have strong opponents the division. You know, we expected it to be competitive, and I think we went into it saying, you know, there there's just an opportunity, and you're not gonna kind of forego that opportunity. And that's the way we looked at it. And yeah, you know, we flexed out of that game for this current week.
But you know, overall, the way we approached it in May, I think we had to and when we listened to the who believe in the Jets, and when the Jets are good, it's it's fun and and that's a big thing, you know, and attracts a lot of attention Aaron Rodgers or any other quarterback. I think, you know, when when the Jets and and the story around them and everything else, and there was a lot of optimism there.
Yeah, and they won their two Thursday night games on Amazon and Primetime, and they lost the two Monday night games they lost the Niners. Those of the Bills they have two others? Are those am I missing one? Did they play Sunday night yet? Or are those two?
Well? I think we just we flexed the Sunday night game.
Okay, so there's probably one more as the season.
Somewhere out there.
Yeah, okay, so then we have a flex here. Is there any personal gratification when like those games that you flex into on primetime like actually end up being better games and more competitive, And to me, it's like, all right, if we're gonna go through all this trouble, it better actually work out.
Sure. I mean, look, in general, I think, you know, we love to kind of you know, when I when a game like this past Sunday, What a great fun game, and I left my hotel in UNI at halftime, and you know, the Texans were dominating by the time I got through security. I pulled it up on my phone and I was seeing in the end. So yeah, we love that. Look, when it comes down to it, ultimately, we're fans too, right, We we love to see great
football and things like that. So whether it's a you know, kind of Lions Texans that felt like such a cool game last May and two teams on the rise and you get that great game, or yes, if you flex into a game and it really delivers and what you hope for sure, you feel good about that. But you know, things that are way out of our control. But we try to be smart, we try to make decisions. And like I said, we're fans too, So what do our fans want to see? That's what we want to do.
Yeah, what is the rules of the divisional matchup? Because I think it's kind of cool in viewers at home and listeners at home might know. So CBS, we'll get at least one of every AFC divisional matchup, meaning they're going to at least get a Jets, Bills, They're going to at least get the Colts, Titans, whatever it is. And then and Fox on the NFC side, so you'll never see you know, Niners Rams on primetime twice, or
you'll never see Cowboys Eagles on primetime twice. Fox is always guaranteed at least one of the divisional matchups.
Right, that's how we go into it. Scheduling, Right, I think there's been a lot of talk about kind of in the new thing, you got Chiefs at Niners on Fox. Right, kind of a classic? You know, huge AFC is the road team game that would have been the centerpiece.
Of a CBS game when the NFC team is on the road at AFC.
Yes, that's right, and so we have that flexibility. You know, the CBS is going to get X number of Chiefs games, but it doesn't have to be just because they're the road team, and we can do something cool like that, or Eagles at Cowboys on CBS this past weekend. We can do that too. But both Fox and CBS, it's very important still to be the identity that we are the network of the NFC and the network of the AFC.
And so one of the ways they do that is every one of those divisional matchups, at least one of them is going to be on our network, and that was very important to them.
Okay, so then sorry for the thirty questions. You know, I love this stuff. So Cowboys Eagles gets the big window. Obviously we didn't know DAK would be out on CBS, but that means, no matter what, the next Cowboys Eagles game will not be on prime time because Fox has to get one of those.
Right, That's right. And that's I think it's week seventeen maybe cool, yep. And those are you know, some of those huge divisional matchups or some of the first pieces on the proverbial chessboard, and we look at those things. And then when you have a division like the NFC North this year, you know, it's really cool when almost every combination of those games are pretty interesting. Right now, Yeah, we have.
A real rarity this weekend in the four o'clock window, if we want to get in the weeds. CBS has just one game and they're sending their pregame show, which by the way, is on at twelve pm, four hours before kickoff, which I think is a major commitment. Like a lot of times you watch you know, Fox's big noon kickoff, it's because it's right into the game. Or college game day is one where they have to actually wait till the kickoff. But you got CBS is sending
their pregame show to Buffalo to Orchard Park. I still call it rich Stadium. That's very old. But yes, they'll be there and it's the only game on CBS in the four o'clock window. Did they have to work that out with you guys? Did they negotiate with you with that. Is that because of the flex situation? I think it's still very rare to have a lone game on a network in a window. Correct.
Yeah, First of all, let's let's just talk about for a second, a noon pregame show outside the stadium. You think they're gonna have a pretty good crowd out there.
I mean, come on, and we don't see that anymore. I'm a historian on this stuff. Fox used to for one year. For one year, Fox I think it was seven, sent the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show to home sites of games and they traveled and Joe Buck actually hosted the show and then went in the booth and would be the announcer. That feels like a distant memory the NFL.
Yeah, he was the original Kirk Curbsheet.
He was before the Private Jets and all that. He was there just walking up to the booth. Yeah. But honestly, I think this is pretty rare that they're doing this. Was Was it always known this was the only game in the window or is that because of the flex of Bengals.
Yeah, No, you're you're hitting a spot on right as scheduled back in May Cincinnati Chargers was in that window as well. So it's it's you know, it's it's somewhere between uncommon and rare. It happens, and you look, if there's any game that can stand alone right now at four twenty five and you know, talk about do you feel good or excited. Let's hope the game lives up to it. But nine to zero Chiefs going to eight and two Buffalo and feeling like this might determine who's
hosting that game at the end of January. Everything we could hope for. We look at a game like this and try to figure out where do you play it. You don't want to play it too early, you don't want to play it too late. Week eleven feels perfect right now, so we'll you know, we hope it delivers. But so you know that it stands alone. You know, it happens. Sometimes it's absolutely a function of the flex this particular week, and you know, let's hope it lives up to all that.
I had a really, really like good conversation with Kyle Brandt offline when we were in the commercial break today of like Keon Coleman, Amari Cooper, Dalton, Kincaid All these guys are banged up, and then they've got the bye week next week. It's the classic do you do you arrest them or do you go I'm like for us to be talking that way about a week eleven game as if it's you know, so, I think it does have those high stakes though.
Absolutely right. I mean, I think you can very clearly kind of say, you know, if you whoever wins this game. Obviously it's two game separation right now, but a long way to go. But just is that the tiebreaker for the number one seed. That's that's very much in play all right.
Before we wrap, I want to go through just the holiday times schedule because there's a couple of little wrinkles here. We've got three Thanksgiving games, we have a Black Friday game, then we have a Christmas Day game, but I think the week before Christmas is like those teams have to play on Saturdays. Let's first go through Thanksgiving slate. What
are the three games on Thanksgiving? And do you guys put a lot of weight into those matchups before the season or is that just hey, put a divisional matchup against one of the teams then will take you know, we'll take our shots at the other spots.
Yeah, look, Thanksgiving is a really interesting one for us where you know, I think we've seen right just the way it is such a part of the cultural fabric, right those games, you know, the the Detroit and then love now with just how exciting and fun the Lions are. But even you know, over the years, right that game, you know, twenty five thirty million viewers, and the Cowboys game thirty five forty million viewers. So there's a lot of schools of thought there of like, you know, could
you put any game in there? Should we put a huge game in there? And we debate that a lot, and our network partners have a lot of feelings about it. But you know, Chicago and Detroit Giants in Dallas, you know, classic Division games, and you know, you just feel like you know, they're they they're going to be up for that game. They're going to be competitive, and you know
we we love that. And you know, back in May we Miami at Green Bay again, you know, Lambeau on Thanksgiving feels fun and Dolphins coming off a win last night, like I said earlier, right, they could be right back in the way the AFC is. So you know, you know, you know, we try to find that balance of like, do you have to put the absolute biggest games on there?
You know, probably not. There's a really strong just built in you know, yeah, built in you're with your family, you're watching, but you want them to be meaningful and feel good about them. Back in May when you have to make these decisions.
And then the next day the Friday. We brought this out last year, and I could tell you from my sources, the Jets would have loved to have had that be like a Cowboys or Lions Thanksgiving thing. Jets would have loved to have had Black Friday. Every take the Macy's Day parade crowd, tell them to stay, hang out a bit, but you guys said, thank you for your service. We're gonna move right along and we'll give this to Kansas City. So that game's an arrowhead on a Friday. And what's that game?
Yeah, same thing, right, Starting something new and you know, going into a completely new window last year was a lot to kind of contemplate. And you know, Miami and the Jets again, back when we made that decision Division game at the time, thinking Aaron was going to be playing felt big in the New York market. The parade, everything about it, and you know had to really understand, you know, what's three o'clock on Black Friday, Like, there was just no comparable to you know, what the viewership
was going to be. And it's still early, right, We're still trying to build a tradition. And so you know, in the same way that we went, you know with the Jets, with the Dolphins, you know, kind of all right, let's go as epic of a place in the league as there is right now. Let's go to Arrowhead. Let's see what that's going to be, you know, and again, you know, matchup wise and everything else. No matter who the Raiders are, they're going to take a lot of
prodown play that team. And we play back to the Christmas Day game last year and there was a lot there, and so you know, we fully expect that to be a competitive game. And you know, the Chiefs aren't blowing anyone out right now, so a competitive football game on Black Friday should be a fun thing.
Sure. And then we get to those Christmas games which are on Netflix. There are two of them, and I'm looking at it now, it looks like it's the AFC Semifinals, Like it's it's crazy. If you take Buffalo out of the equation. You start off with a Pittsburgh Steelers team that's maybe the best story in football right now hosting the Kansas City Chiefs, and then at night you have Texans Ravens. Two great games. That one's in Houston. What
was the ruling with that? Those teams? Then if they're playing on a Wednesday, they couldn't play on the Sunday from the previous week, so they both play on Saturday. All four of them play on Saturdays. How's that work?
Yeah, So this was one that was really interesting to figure out, right just intuitively, and like, oh, the Athol's not going to play on a Wednesday. You know, that's just it doesn't happen. And you're right, it doesn't happen. I don't I don't know what the stat is. We haven't scheduled a Wednesday game in decades, you know. But you know, look at the success we've had on Christmas the last few years, you know, last year kind of I think, averaging twenty six twenty seven million across those
those windows. And I think what our learning is Christmas is another day like Thanksgiving, where you're with your families, you know, whether you celebrate or not, it's everybody. You know, it's a holiday, and there's a all built in market. So the challenge to us from the commissioner was, how are we going to figure this out? So you're right, you can't play Sunday to Wednesday. You know, there's a minimum amount of rest required between games. But Saturday to
Wednesday is the same as Sunday to Thursday. So this just becomes one of those those four teams. This is one of their short week Thursdays, and so that's that excuse me, short week, short weeks, right, So it's just a short week on a Wednesday, but Saturday to Wednesday is doable. And then we had to find four teams who played each other in a combination so that we
could get to those games. Right. So you you mentioned the matchups on Christmas are fantastic, awesome, and then the previous Saturday, we're playing one o'clock on NBC Houston at Kansas City, pretty great game, Pittsburgh and Baltimore on Fox at four thirty. And so we really liked that combination back in April, and may we really like it now here in November, talking about four teams who are just all over it. And so that was, you know, and this is the kind of the what the scheduling team
is challenged with. And there were maybe one or two other combinations of four teams that we could have gotten to, but that we got to this and that where we're sitting right now, you feel, you know, you're pretty psyched about that.
Yeah, And there was a ton of promotion into the Peacock games on last year, both the regular season and the playoffs. There was a ton of promotion this year before that ESPN plus Monday Night game like go find it Netflix, first time having it. I feel like we've seen a lot, hurt a lot in this fight. This weekend with Tyson and Paul is gonna, you know, be a live event and I'm sure there'll be commercials for it.
Do you feel like the NFL has to like promote the hell to that or that's one of those where like everyone's got Netflix, they'll turn it on, they'll know where to find it.
Look, I think it's both. Right. We can't take anything for granted, right, because I think you can't underestimate kind of whether, you know, especially if you're kind of watching on cable satellite, just starting at the bottom and just clicking up to you find the game, or if you're watching on YouTube, TV or Hulu or something, you know,
they'll surface the game to you. But you cannot take for granted that I you know, fans will know, yes, this game is on Netflix, like we need to build that awareness, and Netflix will build that awareness on their own platform. And the most you know, one of the interesting things when they first came to us and you know, said hey, we'd like to do this is Christmas is also their most view day of the year, is what they told us.
So wow, because everyone's on the couch, they're home.
Yeah, that's right, exactly. So if you want to watch the NFL and some great games, great, you're gonna find it. If you want to watch whatever else you watch on Netflix, but maybe you didn't know what the game was on and you're like, oh, wow, let me watch Steelers Chiefs. So no, look, like I said, we don't.
Planning on watching sing too. But wait a second, the Texans are playing the Ravens. Do you mind? Yeah, okay, go for it.
Yeah that's exactly cool. Yeah, yeah exactly. So you know, look, it's it's a cool it's a great opportunity for us. They really, you know, we want to to do this together and it's a generally kind of a worldwide feed and everything else. There's a lot going on there and it's been a great kind of working through all this to get that launched, and we're excited for what it's going to be and Cherry on top. As you said, great matchups, great matchups.
I'll wrap with this. I always tell Mike North this. I've told you this, I've pushed it on this podcast multiple times. I've told Hans Schroeder this. I think there should be a live program at the end of the Sunday night game of week eighteen with cameras in the executive's office at NBC, Mark Lazarus, I want Eric Shanks, I want you know, CBS is David Berson, and ESPN I guess right now is either Jimmy Pittaro or Burke Magnus.
I'm not sure who makes those decisions on their side, but I would like cameras on all of these gentlemen as they are given their playoff slates and their playoff fates, which games they're getting. Is there any chance we can get a live selection Sunday feel to the assignments of which network gets which games, because I still think it's one of the one of the great ideas that it's just untapped in our.
Industry, that is deep, deep into the weeds there, and maybe as bonus content you can get a spy on our zoom. As we're making those decisions, I will tell you that Sunday Night, Week eighteen, Sunday Night is a fascinating one, and maybe Week seventeen Sunday Night because everything in week eighteen is a black slate, right, that whole schedule is TBD, and we're going to sequence Saturday doubleheader on ESPN, ABC and then early late and Sunday night, trying to build to Sunday Night as a win and
in game. But nothing at one o'clock is going to render four o'clock, you know, meaningless, and nothing on Saturday is going to render anything on Sunday meeting list, that's a fun day because there's a million things to figure out, and we start thinking about that, you know, a couple of weeks before Christmas, like what's ahead of us we got to be ready for. So those two Sundays a lot of decisions to make, but a lot it's fun, you know, you talk about the fun part of what
we do. And to your point, those executives on the other end and all the fans, right, what's the matchup go down? And you know what's the sequence of wild Card weekend? Especially now that we're going across three days. It's incredible, It's great.
Annie. As we wrap, I have so many people who email me and say, oh, I've got a kid who's a journalism major and wants to do what you do? You mind having coffee with them? I am sure you get a deluge of emails from people being like my son or daughter would love to work for the NFL. Sounds like you have a dream job and all this stuff.
What would be your advice for someone young or not even someone young, someone who wants to make a career change and get into this world and wants to do what we do or and more specifically what you do working for the league and working in this capacity. What would be your advice to somebody trying to just get all the ducks in a row and setting themselves up for that opportunity.
Yeah, I mean, first of all, Peter, you and I talk about it, like you said, you know, we're buddies and we'd like to text and joke about stuff, but like we're so lucky. I get it. We are. We are blessed, and I I think I'm thankful for that every day. And my kids love to tell my wife that Dad has to watch football on TV for a living, and I'm like, okay, you know, like there there's a lot worse things to do, so starting at that point, and everybody's got an orange and story and a winding
road to where they got to. I think just my general point of view and advice whether you know, especially if you're young, but at any point, like if if you if you want to go for it, just just be open minded, be willing to kind of do just about anything. Right. Not too many people land at the NFL, and you know the Roger Goodell story started an intern and become the commissioner. But if you get in somewhere and you do the work and kind of you know, people know you and like you, you just kind of
build on that and and go from there. And yeah, you know, we're super lucky. You're right, you know, people kind of reach out to you and you try to share your experience. But the big the biggest thing is just you know, one if if you have that opportunity, unity and you can do it, go for it. But just be be open minded. And maybe you don't want to work in a certain thing, but if you get in the door, you never.
Know where you go totally. And like I always said, everyone like there's no job that's too small. But also put yourself out there right, like there's no email you can't send, Like I'm sure if you go through your emails on you there was a version of me ten, fifteen, twenty years ago who probably emailed you like, hey, I'd love to get coffee. Can you talk about it? Because I know I sent them to Peter O'Reilly for about a decade so they do it.
I'm a little older than you, so it was me writing letters to every PR person in every league and just you know, whatever, whatever you could take. And then all takes is one to respond and you have that opportunity and then you got to go make the most of it.
You know, it's funny. Heye, ta go it. And I want to hear your story because I'm sure you have someone that you can mention. But I once wrote an email probably two thousand and four, two thousand and five, hours out of college, I was freelance writing and I wrote an email because I got his email somehow to Jim Nance. And basically I was like writing articles for Foxsports dot com or maybe not even maybe I was
writing for the Free Metro paper in New York. And I wrote Jim Dance like email about how I'm from New Jersey, You're from New Jersey. I just read the book that you wrote about your father, and and that started a you know, two three year email correspondence. And every time Jim Nance was in New York, he would hit me up and say, hey, do you want to grab coffee? Like I'd be willing to do it too, for some like people do respond. So I always tell
everyone like, it doesn't hurt to send an email. They might not try to take you up on it, but someone will.
Someone will, and that's all it takes. And you know, my daughters are seventeen and fifteen, so what you got to look forward to it and in a bunch of years, but you know, they're great kids and they're going out in the world and that just you know, whether it's figuravely or literally stick your hand out say hello, you know, engage with people that they really you know, like you said, some may just it's not you know, it's not the right day or time, and somebody may just connect and
you click and you never know totally.
All right, this was all Annie Bo's. We're gonna have you on a bunch more. This is so fun. I feel like we just gave a tutorial to the listeners on Fox scheduling. The bottom line is you're gonna get as many big games as humanly possible in big windows, and we're going to try to keep this thing as competitive as possible for the national audiences as the season goes on. Annie, I know you're a very busy guy, so appreciated and have an amazing next few weeks, including
these holiday games. I know you're gonna be on the road and you just got back from Munich, so it means a lot for you to do the podcast with me.
No, I appreciate it. Peter always enjoy talking to you, whether it's offline or on the podcast. So anytime, anytime you want, I'm happy to join you. And you know, at the bottom line, you and I are fans. In these next six to seven eight weeks are going to be a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward to it.
No doubt. My prediction was Chiefs versus Packers. It's still flickering, it's still alive. And I think Fox. I think Fox would sign up for a Chiefs Packers super Bowl rehash of Super Bowl one. That doesn't sound so bad.
I think they'd be okay with that. I think the Lions are such a fun, awesome story, you know that, you know, get Bills and Josh Allen to get there would be such a leap.
So I think, did you imagine real quick? Could you imagine the Bills fans and the Lions fans on Bourbon Street for a week? I can't. Actually, I think we're all gonna melt. Yeah, that's gonna be insane that happens.
Let's go who knows now, But no matter what, it's gonna be fun.
Yeah. Wait, all right, Honnie, thank you, buddy, you gotta beter.
Thanks appreciate it.
All right, that's interesting. Honnie Bo's is a great dude. He works in that same group as Mike North and Hans Schroeder and the NFL's media group. But Aaron I thought it was really interesting all of the different rules and regulations and all the stuff that the parameters of flex scheduling because it's not as easy as well, Sunday night gets the best game. Now Fox and CBS they pay a lot of money to make sure that they get good games in their windows as well.
I also I didn't realize is the rule of only two short weeks, and if you're doing two short weeks, only one of them can be a road game.
There was so much.
I feel like some of these things I thought I knew, and the more he got into it, like we're not you know, the Wednesday games. It's okay if they played on the Saturday because it's a short week, but not on the Sunday. There's a lot more. The more I hear about creating the schedule, the more incredibly intricate it becomes. And now I understand why they sit in this room all off season crafting it with so many different legs and webs that weave together.
The great Howard Katz used to be in charge of it and still plays a role. But they say it's an art and a science. So like the art of it is like the fun stuff of like oh, Chiefs play bills this weekend. The science of it is, Yes, Chiefs play bill this weekend, but because we got a flex of Chargers versus Bengals, we can now make it the sole game. And if it's a sole game, and let's end our pregame show like it's pretty cool stuff. I'm fascinated by it. In another life, I would be
doing what Annie does. I find it really cool what they do, and they've got great relationships and they also wield a lot of power with the different networks, so it's always interesting to see how those guys go back and forth. That was a cool guest, and this is gonna be a really cool week of NFL. Last week was kind of a dud, but Thursday night was great and the season with Peter Schrager delivering results presented by
Uber Eats. We give out a award and it's the delivering results presented by Uber eats, where you can get almost almost anything for game dates. The award for the best performance of the week, and I'm giving it to Lamar Jackson. I thought Lamar Jackson was simply awesome last Thursday night at home in those purple Rising jerseys against the Bengals, fading drifting, there's that beautiful touch pass touchdown where he's almost looking like Steph Curry fading away. And
I love the uniforms. Thought those were cool. The Ravens they hold serve with the Steelers and they've got a huge showdown this weekend. Lamar Jackson so fun to watch him. This year puts up huge numbers and now he's getting it done in crunch time, which wasn't always the case, and that was delivering results done by Uber Eats, where you can get almost almost anything for game day, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order. Now
I'll close with those matchups. I think if you just sit at your TV on Thursday night, you're getting Commander's Eagles, and then on Sunday in the one o'clock window, you get your Steelers Ravens, in the four o'clock window, you get your Bills Chiefs, and then if you leave it all that night, you get that Bengals versus Chargers game. That is a really cool Thursday and a really cool Sunday,
and I am here for all that. Aaron Wan Kaufman, Jason English, thank you guys, and thanks to everyone who's listening. Annie Bow's interesting guests. We'll do it again next week. Have a good one, everybody. The Season with Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.