My hometown is a Central Pennsylvania city called Harrisburg, the state capital. When talking about my birthplace with people unfamiliar with the area, I jokingly refer to it as “the nexus of the universe” because many of the major cities in the northeast are within 200 miles, including Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, New York, and Richmond.
That leads to a weird blend of fandom in Harrisburg and its surrounding area, but many NFL fans fall into one of two groups: Eagles fans and Steelers fans. I’d say that probably around 45% of the local fans are Eagles fans, 45% are Steelers fans, and 10% are fans of some other team (including myself, which we’ll get to in a bit). Given that the Steelers are an AFC team and the Eagles are an NFC team, this shouldn’t be an issue – Steelers on CBS each week, and Eagles on Fox each week, right?
Well… this is where it gets complicated. The NFL has deemed Harrisburg a secondary market for the Eagles and… the Baltimore Ravens, not the Steelers, because the local CBS affiliate (WHP-TV) doesn’t reach within 75 miles of Heinz Field. This results in WHP airing every Ravens road game on Sunday afternoons, which usually results in about three or four Sundays each year where Steelers fans get very angry (which pleases me, a Ravens fan). But because WHP is aware that its local viewership base is made up of way more Steelers fans than Ravens fans, it airs the Steelers whenever they can – that is, when the Ravens are at home and the Steelers are playing in the same timeslot. This also happens three or four Sundays a year.
This Sunday was one of those Sundays. The Ravens hosted the Jaguars at 1 PM, and the Steelers hosted the Browns at 1 PM. So WHP aired the Steelers game. No big deal there, right?
Well… one small issue. The Eagles were also at home, and instead of hosting an NFC team (like they do for six of their eight home games each year), they were hosting an AFC team, the Miami Dolphins. This wasn’t a Fox game, it was a CBS game. But since the Eagles were at home, WHP wasn’t obligated to air the game as a secondary market, like it usually does. That meant that Eagles fans felt the pain of both Ravens and Steelers fans because of the local affiliate airing one of the other teams, resulting in a lot of angry fans (just look at the Facebook pages for both WHP and the local Fox affiliate WPMT, which aired the Saints-Redskins game).
And then to top things off, and piss off the one fanbase that wasn’t already pissed off on Sunday, WHP switched away from the blowout Browns-Steelers game to air the end of the more competitive Dolphins-Eagles game. Hey, there were two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of that game that still ended with a 21 point margin of victory!
I was curious about how much this situation happened – either the Eagles getting blacked out for the Steelers, or the Steelers getting blacked out for the Eagles (on WPMT, the Fox affiliate). Typically, there isn’t much conflict, but I crunched some data going back to 2005 using past NFL schedules and the incredible broadcast maps over at The 506.
Funnily enough, this situation that was an issue in Week 10 will also be an issue in Week 14 – the Eagles host the Bills and the Steelers host the Bengals. It’s possible Steelers-Bengals will be flexed into Sunday Night Football to replace Seahawks-Ravens, but Falcons-Panthers is also a tantalizing looking flex opportunity.
Eagles fans also got screwed in Week 1 of 2014, when WHP aired Browns-Steelers (again with that matchup?) over Jaguars-Eagles *and* Bengals-Ravens. In Week 11 of 2013, WPMT aired Redskins-Eagles over Lions-Steelers. In Week 8 of 2012, Falcons-Eagles got the nod over Redskins-Steelers on WPMT. In 2009, WPMT again gave the nod to the Eagles, airing 49ers-Eagles over Packers-Steelers. 2007’s Week 3 gave Lions-Eagles the edge over 49ers-Steelers on WHP, while Week 8 saw the Steelers get the nod over the Eagles on WHP despite playing in different timeslots because Fox had the national doubleheader that week.
Both of the Eagles’ CBS games weren’t aired in 2006, as Ravens-Saints actually got the edge over Jaguars-Eagles on WHP in Week 8 and Steelers-Browns (again) aired over Titans-Eagles in Week 11. 2006 was a really weird year, because WPMT also aired Cowboys-Giants in Week 13 instead of Bucs-Steelers. 2005 again saw the doubleheader situation pop up, and WPMT opted to air Giants-Eagles in the late slot over Bears-Steelers in the early slot of Week 14. Earlier that year in Week 7, WHP aired Steelers-Bengals over Chargers-Eagles. 2008, 2010, and 2011 were conflict free for fans of both teams.
WHP also chose the Eagles over the Ravens (with the Steelers not involved) in Week 3 of 2009 and Week 2 of 2013. They were obligated to air Ravens-Saints over Jaguars-Eagles in Week 8 of 2006. The Ravens and Steelers have only been on Fox at the same time twice since 2005 (Week 3, 2007 and Week 15, 2009), and the Eagles were on the network at the same time. In Week 3 of 2014, Panthers-Ravens (what should have been a Fox matchup) aired on WHP.
So let’s throw all of this into a blender and condense it down, shall we?
-WHP (CBS) will air every Ravens road game.
-WHP (CBS) will air the Steelers if the Ravens are at home and the Steelers are playing on the road or at home against an AFC team.
-WHP (CBS) will air the Eagles if the Ravens are at home and the Eagles are hosting an AFC team.
-WPMT (Fox) will air the Eagles if they’re playing on the road or are hosting an NFC team.
-Who in the hell knows what WPMT will do if the Steelers and Ravens are both hosting NFC teams while the Eagles aren’t in the same timeslot.
I’m glad we clarified all of that. These are the local NFL television rules in a nutshell.
Now, if you live in the WHP/WPMT viewing area like me, you could take care of all of this by buying Sunday Ticket and not having to worry about which team was hosting which team each week. Or you could be a sadist like me, look at all of the conflicts each August, and start planning which games you’re going to watch at the bar instead of at home.
But let’s be honest – fans will keep complaining. The logistics of why these decisions are made don’t matter – all most fans think is “I can’t watch my team, and I am PISSED OFF!” Here’s to seeing all of the complaints again in four weeks!
