Joe Burrow isn’t happy that the Bengals play the Ravens in Baltimore in primetime on Thursday yet again. It’s the fourth time in as many years Cincinnati has had to play under the lights in Baltimore. While it’s an anomaly, NFL vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North concedes he has a point.
Creating the NFL’s schedule is no easy task and appeasing everybody is effectively impossible. As North routinely jokes, the goal seems to be to make everyone equally unhappy with their lot. But he admits there is something to Burrow’s complaints about the Bengals’ schedule, perhaps something to address in their formula.
Last week, Joe Burrow said that the Bengals traveling in primetime to play the Ravens a fourth year in a “isn’t ideal”. He added, “Maybe we can get one of those in Cincinnati, please”.
It doesn’t help that the Bengals have lost their last three primetime games in Baltimore. Joe Burrow played in all of them, most of them on Thursday, and Cincinnati was competitive. In their last two outings, the Bengals lost 35-34 and 34-20. In the latter, it was a one-score game until the Ravens pulled away in the final 20 minutes.
North told Geoff Hobson of the Bengals’ website that Joe Burrow’s complaint was fair. “It’s not a one-or-two-years sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years”. He admitted that he doesn’t like having the schedule this way, but he felt his hands were tied, essentially. He said if he could “wave a magic wand” and change it, he would, but primetime beckoned the Bengals-Ravens.
In theory, North could have just flipped the Bengals’ two games against the Ravens—they play two weeks later—and have Baltimore visit Cincinnati for the primetime game. I’m sure there is some logistical anomaly complicating that, though. Perhaps Cincinnati is hosting a Skyline Chili festival that week and there would be nowhere to park. Unfortunately, Burrow and company will have to miss out on that delicious concoction.
The Steelers, for example, have played on the road in Week 1 almost constantly for the past decade, but that is primarily due to the Pirates. For whatever reason, they always seem to have a homestand during opening day. North didn’t provide much of an explanation for why they couldn’t swap the Bengals’ two Ravens games. The closest he came was saying that they like to put rivalries in prime time, especially on Thanksgiving. Sorry, Burrow.
