Yes .... one of my pet peeves.
When a team is at home one of two things happens in that home television market: the game sells out or it does not.
- If the stadium does not sell out, the home team game is blacked out. In this scenario the Pats would not be broadcast within 75 mile of Foxboro. Since the Pats-Atlanta game is on Fox (the network is determined by the visiting team; Fox=NFC) and CBS has the doubleheader, Fox can could broadcast another game. CBS would still broadcast two games since they have the doubleheader, and the area would get three games on tv (though no Pats game.)
- If a stadium does sell out, then the NFL does not allow another game to be broadcast at the same time. Why? They are still under the belief that fans may not show up for a game they have tickets for because there may be a better game on tv. The NFL and there owners want to make sure nobody is a 'no-show' because a better game is on tv. The thinking is if a better game is not on tv, you'll go ahead and show up at the local game (and spend money on parking, food, beer, etc., because the price of the ticket is only half of the revenue they're looking for.)
There are several problems with this outdated logic. For starters, if a fan has a ticket to a game he probably has spent a lot of money for it. While there are always some no-shows I doubt that watching another game is on top of the list of reasons to throw a hundred or two hundred dollars away - especially early in the season. If the weather is so bad somebody says it's not worth it (lame, but some feel this way) then the decision is the weather - not another game on tv.
Later in the season some may no longer support the team and watch another game. But a Bengal or Ram fan that doesn't want to see their double-digit loss team lose another game is not staying away to watch another game; they're staying away because they're sick and tired of seeing the local product.
The third factor is the reality that if an NFL fan wants to see a game and lives reasonably close to an NFL stadium, then he also has his choice of hundreds of sports bars that have the Sunday Ticket. The fact that other game is not on his tv at home doesn't mean a thing; there are plenty of places he can watch that other game.
Bottom line is that keeping a game off local tv (in this case, another AFC/CBS game at 1:00) is not going to be a factor with a single person and whether or not they use the ticket they have to attend the Pats game. It's just a stupid, outdated, irrelevant rule between the NFL and the networks.