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Prior to this season, the NFL announced it would reserve the right to reschedule (or “flex”) Monday Night Football games for the first time in history, and while it hadn’t exercised that option all year, that’s now changed thanks in no small part to the Patriots.
As things currently stand, the New England Patriots are a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad football team with a 2-9 record and a quarterback controversy involving a debate over which guy has the best chance to reduce their levels of embarrassment as opposed to increasing the odds that they’ll win.
Most NFL fans are aware the league attempts to reserve primetime matchups for contests that are surrounded by a fair amount of intrigue, and while there’s only so much they can do to predict how the season is going to play out, Monday Night Football has historically been positioned as a matchup that gives fans a reason to tune in.
At one point in time, a showdown between the Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs would’ve fallen under that umbrella, but that’s certainly not the case this year.
While those two squads were slated to face off on Monday Night Football on December 18th, the NFL has decided to deploy the MNF flex for the first time in its (admittedly short) history to treat viewers to what will hopefully be a more intriguing game between the Eagles and the Seahawks (New England-Kansas City will now be held in Foxborough at 1 P.M. on December 17th).
Week 15 flex sked update- 3 Saturday @nflnetwork games finalized; first Monday Night Football flex. Via @nfl345 pic.twitter.com/ri4ZzzpMxS
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) November 30, 2023
At this point, you almost feel bad for piling on the Patriots, but it’s also kind of hard to downplay just how one-sided the NFL thinks that game is going to be if it decided to force them to play on a different day (it’s worth noting the league had the option to flex a couple of Jets games in primetime after Aaron Rodgers was injured, but it ultimately declined to resort to that measure).