NFL responds to Joe Burrow's gripes about prime time showdown with Ravens
It took a few days, but the National Football League has responded to Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow's complaints about his team's Thanksgiving trip to Baltimore.
'Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight primetime wasn't ideal. Maybe make one of those in Cincinnati next year... please," Burrow said to ESPN.
This year, the intra-divisional clash will take place on Thanksgiving night, but Burrow's issue doesn't seem to be holiday-related. He's upset about these prime-time games consistently being staged in Baltimore instead of Cincinnati.
The NFL did admit that Burrow's criticism was fair and that if they could magically fix it, they would. However, their response was also basically part "you have some problems with the schedule? Get in line with absolutely every else."
The other part was essentially, "Hey, we like division rivalry games to get the spotlight, and if you have issues with it, go out and beat them then!"
Mike North, NFL VP for broadcast planning and scheduling, told the Bengals' website:
"It's fair. It's not a one or two years sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years. Once you start getting to the same thing three years in a row, four, or five years in a row, whether it's a short week Thursday on the road or opening on the road. ... When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point."
North then pointed out how he's heard malcontent from all 32 teams, saying:
"It just ended up as we got down the stretch here, that this was our best schedule, and fully acknowledging that, I'm sure the Bengals fans are a little surprised and probably a little disappointed, which puts them in the same category as all 31 other teams. Everybody is just a little disappointed in the schedule makers."
However, he also pointed out how this series has been bringing a lot of juice lately, and that was a part of the appeal. North then put a challenge out to the Bengals- if you don't like it, try and spoil your rivals' holiday.
The NFL VP then added:
"Both Ravens-Bengals games last year were spectacular. We wanted to make sure that we ended up with at least one of them in prime time this year. We got it. I'm sure Bengals fans would have preferred it in Cincinnati, but it should be fun for you guys to ruin Baltimore's Thanksgiving.
"One way to ensure a little extra mustard on those is to make them division games. And you see how big we went on Thanksgiving this year. When you start the day with Green Bay-Detroit, and you come back with K.C.-Dallas in the middle, you needed something for NBC Thursday night to kind of fit with that motif, if you will. And that's how we ended up with Bengals-Ravens."
This may be a prevailing storyline once the annual day of giving thanks approaches.
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