How Did the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles Crash Prime Time?

Wait, wait, wait, didn’t the Cleveland Browns miss the playoffs this past season, in fact having their hopes dashed in Cincinnati last year? 

Oh, that’s right, they did. 

So, tell me how the hell the NFL has fallen in love with the Orange and Brown Clowns and awarded them some serious air time this upcoming season?

Cleveland will also be “featured” in a few national TV games, including its opening game at home versus the Dallas Cowboys at 4:15pm.  They will then follow that up with a Sunday nighter at home on NBC against the "Pissburgh Stealers." 

Further Prime Time matchups including Cleveland include hosting Monday Night Football against the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants Oct. 13, the opening Thursday night NFL Network game of the season come Nov. 6 again at home against the Denver Broncos, on Monday Night Football the following week at Buffalo, and then again gracing MNF at Philadelphia Dec. 15. 

Holy Crap.  

Of course, what I am hoping for is a wholesale collapse by the Browns and a severely disappointing season as a Bengals fan and as a fan of the NFL. 

Enough already with so few teams playing in so many high profile games.  Then again, as those games will be on late at night (actually early morning for me) over here in the U.K., that’ll be just fine by me.

Holes in the 2008 NFL Schedule: Better like Pittsburgh, San Diego, Indianapolis, New England and oh yeah, those Brownies and Iggles 

The whole Prime Time setup to me is something of a joke.  I’m not a fan.  And neither are a handful of teams that you’d think might be perhaps deserving of such exposure to a national audience. 

Sure, sure, those flex games will perhaps fix that, but leading up to that, we’re kind of going to have to swallow a few teams.  And, a few of those including the Browns aren’t exactly my favorites. 

That would include the Pissburgh Stealers.

In fact, in Prime time as scheduled thus far, there will be a healthy dose of the Stealers, who along with the Browns, Chargers, Eagles, Patriots, and Colts will be seen five times in Prime Time while both the Cowboys, Giants and Packers will be seen four times. 

Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Chicago and New Orleans will get modest respect with three appearances each. 

Like the Browns, what the hell did the Eagles do to get so many looks along with the teams that you expect to see on TV so much?  In fact, by the time they meet on MNF in December, it will be both teams’ fifth time in Prime Time. 

The Super Bowl Champion New York Giants don’t even get a home Monday Nighter all season after their debut at home on Thursday night against the Washington Redskins.

Good to see that the NFL still is socking it to ESPN and us MNF fans 

The NFL did throw the fans a few bones here and there.  And those bones, scraps really, got tossed to ESPN for their typical lineup of Monday Night Clunkers. 

They don’t have the ability to “flex” schedule any games either in their uber-expensive TV contract.  Why in the hell would the NFL want to see some of these games they’ve tossed out there in Prime Time? 

I mean, can’t they get over ‘Playmakers’ already?  

Can they really hold a grudge on ESPN that long to actually deliver them a double bill of a really dull Minnesota Vikings team and a Brett Favre-less Green Bay team in Week 1 bundled with the dreadful Oakland Raiders hosting Denver in the second half of the double header? 

Or, perhaps the matchup you all can’t wait to see: Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh in Week 4?  Or San Francisco at Arizona in Week 9? 

Try on Cleveland at Buffalo a week later and Jacksonville at Houston a few weeks after that. 

Or my favorite, that Browns/Iggles matchup, which should by then be a game featuring Brady Quinn getting his first start of the season, as the (5-9) Browns play the (4-10) Iggles with Koy Detmer at QB after Philly has run through four or five guys by then. 

The season will come to a merciful end for ESPN with a battle of draft position between the hapless (4-11) Packers at the Bears who’ll be (8-7) and resting all of their players as NFC Central Champs.

NFL, America's and soon the world's game 

Sure, sure, it’s all too early to really complain.  I mean the season doesn’t start for months and here I am finding chinks in the armor in the just hot off the press schedule. 

Of course, true NFL fans couldn’t wait to get their eyes on the thing and that’s the beauty of the NFL.  It’s a year-round thing and even the most disgruntled and die-hard Texan fan can now look forward to the week that Monday Night Football comes to town and the Jags put a whipping’ the hometown team. 

The NFL is a year-round interest generating machine and is the national pastime for certain. 

The draft isn’t even here and the talk has been of the release of the schedule and who might pick who. 

I know I’ve been waiting with bated breath for the release so that I can plan my trip home to the states in order to utilize some of my Bengals season tickets.  

Yep, I’ll miss my first regular season home opener since 1995 and perhaps most of the regular season games for the first time since 1998 when I first had a full regular season ticket. 

Now I can’t wait until the weekend of the draft where you will find Big B and I live blogging an ocean apart while watching the NFL college player selection show.

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