NFL Moves Late Afternoon Kickoffs to 4:25pm

Added on Jun 28, 2012 by Scott in

NFL

Tired of missing the end of the 1pm kickoff game because the NFL had to start the 4:15pm telecasts of your home team on time? Of course you are. Everyone has been complaining about this for years, especially if you happen to live near a team that you hate. Well, the powers that be in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s office finally voted to put an end to this frustrating scenario.

The league has shifted the start times for late afternoon doubleheader games from 4:15pm to 4:25pm to avoid any scheduling snafus. No more cutting off a 20-17 nailbiter to catch the beginning of the Cardinals-Seahawks snoozefest. Hooray!

“In researching the kickoff time shift, the NFL analyzed games from the 2009-11 seasons and found that 44 games required part of the audience to be switched to a mandatory doubleheader game kickoff,” a release from the league reads. “With a 4:25 PM ET kickoff time, that number that would have been reduced by 66 percent to only 15 games… Approximately 40 games over the full 2012 season will be impacted by the 10-minute kickoff time shift — with half of those moves coming in games played in Mountain or Pacific time zones with 1:25 PM or 2:25 PM local starts.”

It’s easy (and reasonable) to lambaste the league for its dogged pursuit to curtail violence from a violent sport, but this seemingly minor change is what makes the NFL the most proactive of the four major professional sports. They legitimately care about improving their product for the viewing public. Now if they could only figure out a way to eliminate two or three TV timeouts per game (never gonna happen).

Ultimately, this means more football for the fans and will also reduce the gap between the start of the Sunday night showdown. Although, if the 1pm games drift past 4:25, we’re still going to be inconvenienced, but that rarely occurs.

Source: NFL.com