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NFL fans have were stuck watching the Falcons in three straight primetime games — and maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason for it.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio floated a conspiracy theory for why some teams are landing three straight standalone games, and it hinges on the NFL’s tight grip on the schedule.
The NFL has had an interesting strategy this year, featuring teams in consecutive primetime slots: the Rams in Weeks 1-3, the Falcons in 3-5, the Cowboys in 5-7, the Seahawks in 6-8 and the Bears in 7-9.
“Here’s my hypothesis…” Florio began. “I wonder if they are experimenting with having the same team in prime time for multiple weeks for if and when they ever fully embrace Tuesday and Wednesday night. Because if you do that, the only way to make the schedule work is to have a team play Thursday one week, Wednesday the next week, Tuesday the next week.”
The NFL has come for every holiday within its sphere of influence, controversially taking over Christmas Day from the NBA and adding to its lead on Thanksgiving Day in 2023 by smashing Black Friday as well.
An unnamed NFL spokesperson told Forbes that the increased primetime showcasing of teams was unintentional.
“This happens a few times a year and was not intentional, but rather a function of how the overall 272-game schedule works out,” Forbes reported. “It’s a combination of opponents, stadium availability, viewership predictions, network requests, etc.”
Awful Announcing reports that this happened zero times in 2025, though the Packers received four straight primetime games in 2024.
Of course, the further back you go, the fewer primetime games you have, making this even rarer.
This was the first year that the NFL opened on Wednesday under its own volition.
The league previously did it one other time: to avoid conflicting with President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech in 2012, they moved Giants-Cowboys to Wednesday.
If that becomes a fixture going forward, Florio’s conspiracy theory will hold even more water.