The NFL announced on Tuesday that the starting times of this season’s late regular-season Saturday afternoon games and Saturday playoff games will be revised to make those national telecasts available to a wider audience.
The move means that for the first time the NFL will have playoff games starting in primetime.
To significantly expand the potential audience for the four Saturday wild card and divisional playoff games, the two contests will start at 4:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET. They had started at 12:30 and 4 p.m. ET in previous years.
NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue reportedly feels that by starting the games later it will increase the viewing audience as he believes that the number of households using television increases dramatically as the day proceeds.
In the four Saturday afternoon regular-season games this season, the start times will be 1:30 and 5 p.m. ET. They had previously begun at 12:30 and 4 p.m. ET. In addition, ABC’s final two regular-season telecasts this year will take place as previously scheduled on Saturday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Dec. 22 (Tennessee at Oakland) and Dec. 29 (Baltimore at Tampa Bay) to avoid playing on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, which both fall on Monday.
TITAN’S AND TEXAN’S BATTLE FLOOD
Titans owner K.S. “Bud” Adams, Jr. and Bob McNair, owner of the Texans, joined forces Monday to fight the massive flooding caused by Tropical Storm Allison.
Adams and McNair live less than one block from each other and Monday night they met at McNair’s home to present a combined gift of $300,000 to the “Spirit of Texas Fund” which was created by the Greater Houston Area Red Cross to assist flood victims.
More than 30 inches of rain has pounded the city in recent days causing 17 deaths. Fourteen additional people are reported missing and more than 17,000 area residents needed temporary shelter last Saturday evening.
It has been reported that the U.S. Coast Guard has rescued at least 194 people from hazardous situations in recent days.
Adams’ gift was a personal one as The Tennessee Titans Foundation is restricted to providing grants to charities within the state of Tennessee.
Adams and NFL Charities also contributed $100,000 each to the American Red Cross of Greater Nashville following the April 16, 1998 tornados that devastated Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
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