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The NFL said all it needed to say about the Cincinnati Bengals with next year’s schedule.
Joe Burrow is an international star and he’s taking the Bengals brand with him.
The NFL could have chosen any number of teams for the international game in Madrid, Spain. But it chose the Bengals for the game in what it considered to be a key market for growth as the expansion continues.
Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning, recently said that this same logic applied to saving big Bengals for key spots late in the season.
"(Burrow) is a game-changer in this league. There's no real hesitation that we talked about to save some of the big ones for late in the season," North said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "Wave a magic wand, maybe move the Kansas City game up a little earlier … I'm sure FOX maybe would prefer that KC-Cincy game a little bit earlier.”
It shows. After the trip to Madrid in Week 9, the Bengals play in back-to-back primetime games on Sunday and Monday nights, in that order.
In Week 14, the mentioned game against Kansas City is a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff, which the NFL considers a premium spot in front of a national audience these days.
Week 17? A Thursday night game against the Ravens. Then, in Week 18 against Cleveland, there’s a “TBD” because the NFL wants the freedom to put it wherever it wants.
There are nitpicks about the Bengals’ schedule. But reading between the lines, it’s clear the NFL has circled Burrow and the Bengals as an important team to prioritize, not just for entertainment value, but ratings and even league growth.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Joe Burrow hailed as ‘game-changer’ for NFL and schedule
Continue reading...
Joe Burrow is an international star and he’s taking the Bengals brand with him.
The NFL could have chosen any number of teams for the international game in Madrid, Spain. But it chose the Bengals for the game in what it considered to be a key market for growth as the expansion continues.
Mike North, the NFL's vice president of broadcast planning, recently said that this same logic applied to saving big Bengals for key spots late in the season.
"(Burrow) is a game-changer in this league. There's no real hesitation that we talked about to save some of the big ones for late in the season," North said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "Wave a magic wand, maybe move the Kansas City game up a little earlier … I'm sure FOX maybe would prefer that KC-Cincy game a little bit earlier.”
It shows. After the trip to Madrid in Week 9, the Bengals play in back-to-back primetime games on Sunday and Monday nights, in that order.
In Week 14, the mentioned game against Kansas City is a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff, which the NFL considers a premium spot in front of a national audience these days.
Week 17? A Thursday night game against the Ravens. Then, in Week 18 against Cleveland, there’s a “TBD” because the NFL wants the freedom to put it wherever it wants.
There are nitpicks about the Bengals’ schedule. But reading between the lines, it’s clear the NFL has circled Burrow and the Bengals as an important team to prioritize, not just for entertainment value, but ratings and even league growth.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Joe Burrow hailed as ‘game-changer’ for NFL and schedule
Continue reading...
