The Detroit Lions are the only team in the NFL that is not slated for a primetime game this season, a decision that even the league schedule makers have noted as unusual.
Mike North, the NFL VP of broadcasting, was asked about Detroit not having any night games this season during a conference call on Friday and acknowledged that it “looked odd,” but pointed toward the 12:30 p.m. ET Thanksgiving game that the team gets each year.
“Unattractive is not the right word,” North said, via ProFotballTalk. “The real thing for us, is, again, we look at them on national windows and we can never lose sight of the fact that Thanksgiving afternoon window — that 12:30 window in Detroit — most years is the No. 2 or No. 3 most-watched NFL game every year, so there’s no hesitation to put the Lions in a national window like that.”
Yet, it has long been NFL tradition to put the Lions in the timeslot, so the phrasing that there was “no hesitation” to put them there seems a bit unusual for a game that is set in stone every year.
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North continued that the Lions would probably receive more eyeballs on Thanksgiving than any Monday or Thursday night game.
“I acknowledge that it ‘looks odd’ to have them not in primetime,” he said. “But they’re gonna be playing in one of the five most-watched games of this season. That’s pretty good, too.”
The Lions will also have plenty of spotlight on them leading into the season as the team will be featured in HBO’s “Hard Knocks” during training camp.
And while the team won just three games last season, they lost six games by one possession, including four by three points or less.
It is certainly possible the Lions could surprise some people this year and perhaps getting snubbed out of primetime games is just more bulletin board material for Dan Campbell’s squad.
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