Photo: Dylan Buell
Colin Cowherd: “The NFL had a choice and they put the Packers hosting the Lions on Sunday night. Now, Seattle and the Rams play earlier in the day. If Seattle beats the Rams then the Lions are out. It arguably disincentives the Lions playing the Packers. So Green Bay then faces a team whose season is over and the game is less relevant. Detroit fans wanted the games to be played simultaneously in the 1pm ET window so you don’t know [what the scores are] ,and they wanted their Lions team believing to the last whistle that they had a chance of getting into the playoffs. But if Seattle beats the Rams then the Lions are out. This cracks me up because this thing has ‘conspiracy theory’ written all over it, that Fox and the NFL want Aaron Rodgers in the playoffs. First of all, we do… We also want the Yankees in the World Series but they didn’t end up there. The network that has the National Championship would prefer Michigan vs. Georgia or Ohio State vs. Georgia over TCU, a smaller brand. So bored people, let me try to explain why the NFL did this…” (Full Segment Above)
Watch Colin Cowherd reject any ‘conspiracy theories’ on why the Packers vs. Lions game was flexed to the Sunday Night Football time slot, and effectively giving Green Bay a massive advantage in the event that the Seahawks beat the Rams earlier in the day and Detroit is already eliminated from playoff contention.
Most thought the NFL would elect to air the Jaguars vs. Titans Sunday night as a true ‘win and in’ standalone game that normally gets put in this time slot, but the NFL decided to air that game Saturday night and go Lions vs. Packers Sunday night in Lambeau despite the possibility that the Lions would have nothing to play for by kickoff, and thus hurt Seattle’s playoff chances needing a Packers loss to Detroit.
Check out the segment above as Colin explains why he doesn’t think it’s any sort of ‘conspiracy’ that the NFL and its networks would go out of their way to get the big-brand Packers into the playoffs.
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