After debating it over at the NFL's annual league meeting last week, the league's owners decided not to vote on whether they should implement Thursday night flexing for the upcoming season. Instead, the owners decided to table the conversation with the expectation that they'll revisit it when they get back together for the NFL's spring meeting in May.
For Thursday night flexing to get approved, 24 of the NFL's 32 owners have to vote for it. Although a vote wasn't taken last week, it does appear there was an unofficial tally taken and based on that tally, the flexing proposal came two votes shy of being approved.
According to NBC Sports, there were 22 teams that voted for Thursday flexing, eight teams that voted against it and two teams that abstained from voting. The two teams that decided not to vote were the Broncos and Panthers, which means they now likely hold the key to whether there will be Thursday flexing in 2023.
If the Broncos and Panthers decide to vote for the proposal in May -- and assuming no one changes their vote -- then Thursday flexing will have the 24 votes it needs to pass. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made it very clear last week that he would like to see the rule approved, so you can bet that he'll be talking to Denver and Carolina between now and May about voting for the proposal.
If Thursday flexing is approved, then the NFL would be allowed to flex games from Sunday to Thursday, but with two caveats: There would have to be 15 days notice with each flex and only Thursday games in Weeks 14 thru 17 could be flexed.
"Providing the best matchups for our fans is part of what we do," Goodell said last week, via PFT. "That's part of what I think our scheduling has always focused on and flex has been a part of that. We are very judicious with it and we're very careful with it, and we look at all of the impacts of it."
Although Goodell wants to see Thursday flexing get approved, there are plenty of teams who don't want to see it happen. According to NBC Sports, the Giants, Jets, Bears, Saints and Packers are five of the eight teams that plan to vote against it.
Giants owner John Mara was very vocal about his opposition last week and his reasoning mostly had to do with the fact that it would be horrible for fans.
"At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to our games? People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance," Mara said, via NBC Sports. "And 15 days ahead of time to say, 'Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at 1, now it's on Thursday night'? What are we thinking about?"
Goodell took note of that complaint, but it didn't seem to change his mind.
"It's a very important thing to balance between the in-stadium fans and those who watch on TV," Goodell said.
"There isn't anybody in that room, anybody in any of our organizations, that don't put fans first."
The NFL's spring meeting is scheduled for May 22-24, so if the Thursday proposal is going to be voted on this year, that's when it will happen. Although the owners didn't vote on Thursday flexing yet, they did approve a new rule that allows each team to play two short-week Thursday games per season.
That being said, even if the Thursday flexing proposal doesn't pass, there will still be a new flexing policy in place for the 2023 season. Starting this year, the NFL can now flex Monday night games beginning in Week 12.
