League media chief Hans Schroeder says Wednesday football will stay an occasional novelty, not a weekly fixture.
The NFL has quietly started scheduling games on Wednesdays, including this season's Super Bowl rematch opener in Seattle and a Thanksgiving Eve matchup. But don't expect it to become a weekly habit, according to the league's top media executive.
Speaking this week at a Front Office Sports event, NFL executive vice president and chief media officer Hans Schroeder said the league plans to stay choosy about when it expands beyond its traditional Thursday, Sunday and Monday slate. "We're going to be selective," Schroeder said. "I don't think what you're going to see is playing Wednesday football throughout the year."
Schroeder compared the approach to how Christmas games evolved into a tentpole date, saying the league will look at "opportunities to do something creative" like the Wednesday and Thanksgiving Eve games before deciding whether to repeat them. Ultimately, he said, the decision comes down to the numbers. "We're going to figure out whether we think it's a smart thing to do," he said, "and then we're going to look at the numbers and make sure that the numbers and the viewership validates what our instincts" suggest.
The league is already playing on every day of the week this season except Tuesday, with games also scheduled for Friday and Saturday in addition to the usual trio.