The Big Lead

The NFL Needs to Get Rid of the Monday Night Football Double-Header Forever

By Stephen Douglas

Stephen Gostowski kicks a field goal. Maybe.
Stephen Gostowski kicks a field goal. Maybe. / Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
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The NFL needs to drop their week 1 Monday Night Football double-header. That's it. That's the post.

It's not that no one wants two football games on Monday night, it's that no one NEEDS two football games on Monday night. There is no good argument for this game to exist. After Thursday Night Football, the national game on Sunday, Sunday Night Football, and the first Monday Night Football game it is highly unlikely, if not impossible for there to be a fifth game with a storyline worthy of a national audience.

By the time the late MNF game kicks off, the celebration is over. It is no longer opening day or opening night. The season started four days earlier. There have been 15 games by the time this game begins. Absolutely no one is ever excited for the matchup.

Last night's game featured Drew Lock and the Denver Broncos versus Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans. Let me look up the results of the game because I, a person who gets paid to watch and write about sports, had zero interest in staying up past 1 a.m. Eastern to see this game. Let's see... the Titans won on a field goal from Stephen Gostowski on his... fourth attempt of the game. If ever a game deserved to be show on a fourth screen during the 4 p.m. window on Sunday afternoon, this is it.

The only scenario where a Monday double-header makes any sense is if the NFL moved their season to Labor Day weekend and they started the first game at like 4 p.m. If the NFL wants Week 1 to be treated like a holiday, they should do it on an actual holiday.

As it stands, two games on Monday Night Football is just dumb. The way things are going this season, the ratings will be way down so they will have an excuse to get rid of it. It's actually a shame that they will try to blame bad ratings for a bad game featuring two teams no one cares about on politics or whatever. This was a game and time slot that deserved poor ratings. Let's learn from this and get everyone to bed early next season.