The New York Jets are not a good football team, but the media still eats them up because, sex excluded, nothing sells quite like controversy, and the majority of us in the TV-viewing audience are the media world's version of rubberneckers. We can't take our eyes off of a classic train wreck.
But even with back-to-back wins keeping them faintly alive in the playoff race, the NFL and NBC can't rationalize keeping the still-pathetic Jets in primetime two weeks from now.
That's why Week 16's Sunday Night Football game between the Jets and the equally terrible and depressing San Diego Chargers has become the first victim of the league's ability to "flex" Sunday nighters between Weeks 11 and 17.
Since flexing was implemented in 2006, the league and the networks have been fairly conservative when it comes to making changes. It's not quite as simple as NBC getting their pick of games each week as both Fox and CBS can protect a limited amount of games. This year's been one of the most conservative with flex scheduling though as this is the first time the NFL has removed a game from primetime this season. And because nobody is slated to play in the Sunday nighter in Week 17 until early that week, it'll be the only time that happens.
Replacing the Chargers-Jets game that night will be a good divisional matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks.
Who had the Seahawks flexing into Sunday Night Football in place of the Jets before the season began?
[NFL.com]
