One NFL team’s fanbase is already upset with the league over the Week 18 schedule, and now another team’s fanbase has joined them.
On Sunday, the NFL announced that the Titans and Jags would be playing in primetime on Saturday. That upset Jags fans since Jacksonville will now be on a short week for a game with huge consequences, while the Titans have extra rest.
Seattle Seahawks fans now have a reason to gripe just like Jags fans.
The NFL has flexed the Detroit Lions-Green Bay Packers game into the “Sunday Night Football” slot. That’s upsetting to Seahawks fans because of how the Lions-Packers game affects their team.
Seattle is scheduled to host the Los Angeles Rams at 4:25 pm ET on Sunday. In order to make the playoffs as the final wild card team in the NFC, the Lions not only need to beat the Packers, but they also need the Seahawks to lose.
The Seahawks game will have ended before the Lions and Packers kick off, meaning Detroit will know whether or not they have a chance to make the playoffs. If the Seahawks win, then the Lions will have been eliminated from the playoffs. In that scenario, Detroit might not be incentivized to play as hard against Green Bay, which would hurt Seattle’s playoff chances, since Seattle needs a win and Packers loss in order to receive the wild card.
The entire reason the NFL doesn't schedule the times of the Week 18 games is to avoid the situation it just created by putting Lions/Packers on SNF.
— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) January 2, 2023
From a fair competition standpoint, it would have made much more sense to put the Lions-Packers game on Saturday night, and the Jags-Titans on Sunday night, or just have the Lions and Packers play at the same time as the Seahawks. But that wouldn’t be as good for ratings.
Also, the NFL could very easily argue that the Lions will prepare and play hard regardless of the outcome of the Seahawks game. They could very easily be motivated to win just to knock the Packers out of the playoffs.
