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Week 5: Bills at Titans on Tuesday Night Football


YoloinOhio

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2 minutes ago, Mango said:


I believe part of the scheduling issue was due to Tampa not being willing or able to change SB weekend. At the time, I think people, and Florida especially, thought we would be well back to normal come February and that meant everything else on the calendar would box that weekend in. 
 

What the league could do is pause, build in bye weeks. Then treat the SB like a normal playoff game. Top seed gets the home field. Push the existing SB contracts back a year. 
 

Or they could just keep beating their head against the wall and keep reshuffling the deck chairs and hope they get everybody to play 16 games and the playoffs go off without getting wonky. 


 

Not true - the NFL stated they actual have an agreement with the TB stadium for every Sunday in February and have the ability to shift back the season up to 4 weeks, but they are for emergency use only - the NFLPA did not agree changes to the schedule or additional bye weeks.

 

The biggest problem with a pause right now is that this might not be the apex of the virus for the fall.  So if they pause for a couple of weeks - they still have to try to get the 16 games in and now you are left with only 2 potential emergency weeks.  The NFL would like to hold onto the weeks if needed because if things get worse - they run out of options.

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Just now, jeremy2020 said:

 

It's going to be this. They seem to dedicated to the putting off the tougher decisions as long as possible hoping that things even themselves out. 

 

Hope tends to be a bad strategy for success though. 


They could make a "shoot from the hip" decision right now that might work. Cancel all out of conference games for the rest of the season. Playoff seeding is only conference record. That gives the league and teams some wiggle room to reschedule if things get off track. Like right now, both Buffalo and Tennessee have NFC games on November 8. Cancel the NFC games, pencil in Tenn @ Buf. Losing home field is part of the Titans punishment. 

Our team gets to breath for the week and know who they are playing and when. Tennessee gets to get their shirts together. It is almost too easy. 

Except for the fact that the NFL is still trying to grab at TV money. Which I think in this scenario is minimally effected, because Sunday is still filled with tons of football. Just WNY shows the Browns game instead of Buffalo. The advertising money is still there. It should be a minimal impact on the TV money. Players missing a game check or two stinks, but you could solve that with taking a team like the Titans, fining them pretty heavily, and using that to help make up for lost wages.  

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6 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Do the players get paid for a bye week?  I always thought not.


No - they get paid for 16 weeks and from the discussion on NFL radio with Jerry Jones (I think) he stated they discussed adding weeks and the NFLPA refused without getting a boost for the extra weeks.  Basically they said we get paid for 16 games and 17 weeks - if you are adding weeks we need to practice and be available - we want to be compensated.  
 

Now - I don’t know how hard they pushed, but it was lumped in with the refusal to bubble.  Any schedule changed need approval and it did not sound like it was going to be given without compensation.  They were willing to drop a couple of games and stay at 17 weeks, but not change the players salaries- which was a non starter.

Edited by Rochesterfan
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8 minutes ago, Mango said:


I believe part of the scheduling issue was due to Tampa not being willing or able to change SB weekend. At the time, I think people, and Florida especially, thought we would be well back to normal come February and that meant everything else on the calendar would box that weekend in. 
 

It appears this may not be true. It looks like the NFL negotiated SB for any weekend in Feb.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2020/04/27/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-schedule.aspx

 

“Specific conversations have occurred with Tampa hosts about delaying the Super Bowl by one week to Feb. 14, but a source said the last two weeks of February are in play as well.“

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7 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Well one thing we've learned the past few years is rules only matter if someone is willing to enforce them with consequences. The NFL could easily claim extenuating circumstances.

 

To violate the law? Your sentiment makes no sense. 

 

To be clear, the NFL can play the game on Saturday, they just can't broadcast it. Broadcasting it within 75 miles of a college with a football team would be again the law. TO change this, they would need an act of congress or a lengthy court battle. 

 

All under the supposition that the NFL even has an interested in getting into a ratings war with College games. 

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1 minute ago, Mrbojanglezs said:

Did anyone notice if the two recent positives were players present at the off-site practice? 

 

It's not known yet.  Corey Davis could be the smoking gun...

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The most important thing for the league to do in a situation like this is to avoid overreacting to the "momentum" of these stories.

 

Sometimes it seems like the stories snowball into an avalanche and people overcorrect. The NFL needs to ride this out without doing anything rash. It's one team that is the issue. The Raiders, Patriots and Chiefs had a player here or there, which has already happened to other teams and it's hardly noticed. 

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4 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

The league sent a memo to the titans. If the titans failed to inform the players...well ignorance of the law is not a defense. 

Sure, but my point is that that shouldn't even matter.

 

It's stone cold obvious to anyone with a cerebral cortex that if you can't practice in your controlled facility, it's not OK to practice somewhere else. The players should have known that with or without any memos or any notification by the team.

 

How could it possibly make sense to say, "Well we can't practice in our sanitized facility due to the risk of spreading COVID, but it's OK to practice offsite with no sanitation, monitoring, etc." Idiotic.

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1 minute ago, Alphadawg7 said:


But it can’t be moved to then, Titans can’t play a game on back to back days.  Player safety still has to be considered.  

I was referring to the TNF game, I believe the poster said it cannot be moved 

Edited by YoloinOhio
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19 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

 

I actually said that same thing yesterday but my thread got locked.

 

As crazy as it sounds, the entire league played with replacement players in 1987 for several weeks. 

 

An entire NFL filled with guys off the streets for over a month. You never hear about that year's Super Bowl "not counting." Why is it so nuts to do it for a team here and there for a week, in the middle of an unprecedented "global situation" (some of us have to avoid that word). 

 

Also, Pat Kirwin on Sirius NFL radio was recently talking about a league-wide practice squad with some ex NFL coaches working them out in practice and keeping them ready to play. Any team could grab as many players as possible from this squad to keep the games going. My version was only a step further, with an entire team.

 

I guess the mods locked my thread because I mentioned what I guess we have to call the non-specific novel respiratory/multi-symptom illness on this board, except when we don't. But the idea of having a league wide practice squad of replacement players for let's say "non-injury related issues" has been floated by many people who cover the league.

 

We have the procedures the NFL/NFLPA agreed to.  This is not something that was agreed to.  Debating it is fruitless.

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11 minutes ago, Rochesterfan said:


 

Again - you are blaming the NFL for something they alone could not approve.  The NFLPA would have to agree to any schedule changes and the NFLPA refused bubbling and refused to give back money for a shorter season.  They also rejected adding bye weeks without adding another week of pay.  
 

In the end the easiest agreement was keeping things the same.  Some of that is greed and some is waiting for guidance from the Federal Level that never came.  They did not want agreements in place that then got overwritten by federal guidelines.

 

I think it was very difficult to put exact numbers in place - it was always going to be based upon their infectious disease guideline expert.  They planned and expected to have to postpone games around testing.  They identified that travel (airplane/bus) were the 2 biggest risk factors to transmission (much higher than game play) and therefore - like the Pats game - it wasn’t Cam’s positive that delayed anything - it was needed Int to do contract tracing and determine who were higher risk exposures.  Then determining how to transport them safely without infecting others.

 

The protocols were fairly clear and appear to work - the idea - much like baseball was always based upon the players following it.  When they don’t bad things happen.  The problem was for breaking protocol- the league was not given permission to penalize the players - it comes from the teams.  The NFL can fine teams and coaches, but it is the teams job to punish the players.  
 

The agreements make it difficult for the league to do everything they would want.

 

That's fair, and you're right - I'm not taking much of that into consideration.

 

It's just frustrating for me as a fan. From the outside, it seems like they're just making it up as they go along, and hoping for the best.  But I'm sure there is a ton that goes into it that makes things more complicated than I'm allowing for.

 

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I guess one positive of the game possibly moving to Tuesday and Chiefs to Saturday is 2 night games for the Bills. 

 

It just seems strange that there's such a major outbreak on the Titans all at once, when other teams have a player here or there. 

Edited by TheFunPolice
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The game should have already been cancelled.  The delay to make this decision is sad. The NFL and NFLPA are trumpeting player safety during this pandemic but don't appear to be practicing what they preach in this situation. The Titans continue to test positive day after day.  It's disgusting how far the NFL will go for a dollar. 

 

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3 minutes ago, Billever76 said:

You would think some kind of exemption or special accommodations could be made considering covid19 unprecedented situation

check out the wikipedia page. an exemption occurred due to Hurricane Wilma

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Broadcasting_Act_of_1961

 

 

Edited by Nineforty
the singular
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Diana Russini tweeted out that she's been told by Bills and Titans players that if the game can't be played Sunday, they could play Monday or Tuesday, with the Bills/Chiefs moved to Saturday.  Nothing concrete, but they've clearly been floated this idea from somewhere.

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29 minutes ago, jeremy2020 said:

 

The sports broadcasting act of 1961. It's been mentioned several times in this thread. 

 

This section?  "The law has been interpreted to include the so-called "blackout rules" which protect a home team from competing games broadcast into its home territory on a day when it is playing a game at home, and from having to broadcast games within its home market area that have not sold out. It also, in effect, protects high school football and college football game attendance by blacking out pro football games locally on Friday evenings and Saturdays during those sports' regular seasons; these measures effectively outlawed the broadcasting (and, in practice, the playing) of NFL games on those days, since virtually all of the country is within 75 miles (120 km) of at least one high school game on every Friday night in September and October. "

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Broadcasting_Act_of_1961

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9 minutes ago, Rochesterfan said:


 

Not true - the NFL stated they actual have an agreement with the TB stadium for every Sunday in February and have the ability to shift back the season up to 4 weeks, but they are for emergency use only - the NFLPA did not agree changes to the schedule or additional bye weeks.

 

The biggest problem with a pause right now is that this might not be the apex of the virus for the fall.  So if they pause for a couple of weeks - they still have to try to get the 16 games in and now you are left with only 2 potential emergency weeks.  The NFL would like to hold onto the weeks if needed because if things get worse - they run out of options.

 

I hadn't seen that. Not that I think you are wrong, but I didn't see it with a quick "Tampa Super Bowl weekend" google. 

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1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I'm just glad I'm not the only one who is confused.

 

It's "stand and deliver" time for the doctors in charge of the NFL's infection control plan.  With positive tests continuing and with confirmation that the Titans met at least once outside the facility (thus further exposure), are they truly so very confident that 2 days of negative tests would mean the Titans are clear?   If they are placing Bills coaches and players at risk of infection...Bills could then become infectious JUST IN TIME to play the league darling Chiefs.

 

There must be a giant collision between "we must keep the schedule going and the revenue flowing in!  don't cancel!" with "consider the consequences if we don't cut this off here, with one team"

Gilmore was already hugging on Kermit!!

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2 minutes ago, Nineforty said:

check out the wikipedia page. exemptions have occurred due to things like hurricanes. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Broadcasting_Act_of_1961

 

 

 

But it says "In 2005, a Miami Dolphins-Kansas City Chiefs matchup, scheduled for Sunday, October 23 in Miami, was moved up to 7pm Friday night due to Hurricane Wilma. The game was televised only within 75 miles of Miami and Kansas City.[4][5][6]"

 

The NFL is not gonna see a prime-time Thurs nite game between two top teams likely to bring in ratings flutter away on the wind in favor of a broadcast within 75 miles of Buffalo and Kansas City.

 

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8 minutes ago, Mr Info said:

It appears this may not be true. It looks like the NFL negotiated SB for any weekend in Feb.

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2020/04/27/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/NFL-schedule.aspx

 

“Specific conversations have occurred with Tampa hosts about delaying the Super Bowl by one week to Feb. 14, but a source said the last two weeks of February are in play as well.“

 

Thank you Si!  Did not see that. I could not find it with a quick google either. 

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1 hour ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

From the updates topic heading, it appears that there were 2 more positive tests today?

 

that definitely means the game is off on Sunday. 
 

if I were the NFL, I would say, “game postponed indefinitely.” They can figure out later whether they can squeeze it in or whether they want to call a forfeit. 

There was one new one today and then they confirmed a positive that had originally been counted yesterday but needed rerun 

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2 minutes ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Gilmore was already hugging on Kermit!!

 

The NFL doesn't apparently consider that bro hug a close contact.  They could, of course, be mistaken.

 

1 minute ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

It can be moved. The Thursday night game will be moved to Saturday 

 

Is that confirmed it can happen?  Broadcast Act of 1961 etc?

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