ESPN decided earlier this week to flex the scheduled Week 13 game between the New England Patriots out of Monday Night Football slot, the first time this has ever happened to a MNF matchup. Their reasoning for doing so isn’t exactly a mystery when you consider the 2-9 Patriots’ struggles on the year.
Any network would typically love to broadcast a team like the Chiefs playing in a primetime slot.
However, any game takes both teams to produce an entertaining viewing experience for fans. A matchup against arguably the best team in the NFL like the Chiefs and one of the worst teams in the NFL like the Patriots sets up for a potential blowout of epic proportions. And one prominent NFL media voice agrees.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated‘s The Monday Morning Quarterback and NBC Sports Boston made an appearance on The Toucher and Rich Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub on Friday. There, he made the argument that ESPN is actually doing the Patriots “a favor” by flexing them out of the Monday Night Football slot.
“The first Monday Night (Football) flex was going to happen,” said Breer. “I think the most embarrassing thing about it isn’t that it’s the first Monday night game. It’s that somehow you are bad enough to get Patrick Mahomes flexed out of a Monday night game.”
“How bad does it have to be for an ESPN to say, ‘Yeah, we got to take Mahomes and the Chiefs out of that slot?’ I think they might be doing the Patriots a favor because if it was like 28-0 by the first drive of the second quarter, the rest of the broadcast might be an autopsy.”
“That’s what it could turn into. In a roundabout way, they may have done the Patriots a favor. Even as embarrassing as it is in the moment.”
The Patriots currently sit at 2-9 on the year, their worst start to a season since the 1993 season. For an organization that has been so consistent as of late, the year can only be seen as an utter failure.
Considering this, Breer is probably right about the Patriots likely not being too upset with being flexed. Had they played on MNF in Week 13, it likely would have been one more chance for many viewers at home to get a view of the trainwreck that the organization has become.
