NFL's new flex scheduling for Thursday, Monday night games could impact Patriots in 2023

BOSTON -- The NFL did what was expected on Monday by officially passing a new scheduling rule that allows the league to flex games out of and into Thursday night slots late in the season.

It's a move that's a win for viewers at home, as it ensures that the league will have optimal games placed in the national window for its midweek prime-time slot. It will, however, create major inconveniences and headaches for fans who attend games, as it will completely disrupt plans for anyone who intends to attend a Sunday game that gets moved to a Thursday, and vice versa.

That issue, though, didn't stop the owners from approving the rule, with a 24-8 vote. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones summed up his feelings succinctly, noting that only a small percentage of fans will be affected by the change, and that small percentage of paying customers does not matter.

OK, he didn't say that exactly. He said this:

"Every owner in that room lives and breathes sensitivity to those fans. But only 7% of our fans have ever been inside a stadium. Seven. Percent," Jones said. "So you've got a lot of fans -- a huge majority of the fans that are out there -- that this is good for them."

That's not the nicest thing for an owner to say about the people who spend hundreds of dollars and dedicate entire days so that they can attend a single football game, but it is standard operating procedure for a league that is run with cold, hard efficiency. Players are constantly reminded of that reality every waking moment of their lives, and now some fans can relate to that feeling of just being a number on a page for the billionaires to disregard.

As it relates to the local football team, there are two Patriots games that could be affected by the flex scheduling that now applies to Monday night and Thursday night games. Those games come in consecutive weeks in early December: Week 14, in Pittsburgh on a Thursday night, and Week 15, at home against Kansas City on a Monday night.

Those games should be safe from flexing, but if, say, Patrick Mahomes is injured and the Patriots are a sub-.500 team, anything would be on the table. There's also no guarantee that the Steelers are a competitive team late in the season, as they entered December with a 4-7 record last year. So fans planning a trip to Pittsburgh for that one have to at least consider the possibility of the game shifting three days later.