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Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cowboys Disrespected by FOX TV Schedule Decision For 1 Reason
FRISCO — The NFL has released its schedule for the 2025 season and once again the Dallas Cowboys are a key feature spread across some primetime spots and major game days. Much to the chagrin of their haters, they claim these spots coming off a 7-10 campaign in 2024. The Cowboys have six primetime appearances and a total of eight standalone games counting their matchups on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Dallas will also set a record this season with four Thursday games on the schedule. Advertisement Regardless of these tokens of the schedule, Cowboys fans have grown accustomed to seeing their team in the spotlight and not fitting into the traditional mold. However, there was a concerted effort to make a separate change to the team's schedule. The Cowboys will have less representation in FOX's "America's Game of the Week." Mike Mulvihill, the President of insights and analytics at FOX Sports, revealed to The Athletic that this was done in order to give other teams more of the spotlight around the league both within the NFC and AFC. "Of our 4:25 p.m. games, only three of them are Cowboys games,' Mulvihill said. "In other years, we've gone looking for five or six Dallas games at 4:25. What we wanted for this year was more AFC, more Philly, but also more Detroit and a little more Washington to try to capitalize on the Jayden Daniels story. I think we have a better mix of teams than we've had in the past." Advertisement Last season, the Cowboys took that 3:25 p.m. slot on FOX three times in the first six weeks. FOX's No. 1 broadcast crew with Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady actually called Cowboys games the first three weeks of the season, getting their fourth in Week 6 in Dallas' blowout loss to the Detroit Lions. It's a noticeable change but a positive one in the grand scheme for the league. The Cowboys are always a draw, but there are other proven contenders and stories to monitor throughout the NFC that should take some precedent this season. More than anything though, Cowboys fans want to see their team winning these marquee matchups and rebuilding their contending status. Related: Cowboys George Pickens Jerseys On Sale Despite Missing Key Detail Related: 'Schotty's' First Month A Chance For Cowboys To Stake NFC Claim
NBC Sports
15-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Fox pleased with 2025 schedule after asking NFL for better AFC-NFC balance
The NFL's two Sunday afternoon TV packages have long been divided up with Fox primarily getting NFC games and CBS primarily getting AFC games, but in recent years the league has had more flexibility to move games across networks. And Fox hasn't always been happy with that. Fox executive Mike Mulvihill told Richard Deitsch of that in past years his network has felt it was losing more good NFC games than it was getting back in good AFC games, but that Fox is pleased with how the NFL divvied up the schedule this season. 'We talked a lot with the league about the idea that 'cross-flex,' which is the policy by which NFC games can go to CBS and AFC games can go to Fox, needed to be a little bit more balanced,' Mulvihill said. 'That cross-flex mechanism was created to help balance the (media) packages, and in the years since then, the AFC has become significantly better than it was when that protocol was agreed upon. They (other outlets) were getting better NFC games than we were getting back from the AFC side. It just became a little bit imbalanced.' This year, Week 14 Bengals-Bills is a big AFC game with star quarterbacks Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and likely playoff implications, that the NFL gave to Fox. That's a game that wouldn't have gone to Fox under the stricter NFC/AFC split, and it's the kind of game that makes Fox very pleased with the NFL's schedule makers.
