NFL to eliminate Week 1 Monday Night Football doubleheader
Apr 5, 2021, 11:33 AM | Updated: 11:38 am
The NFL is expected to eliminate the Week 1 ‘Monday Night Football’ doubleheader beginning this season, per NBC Sports’ Peter King.
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The league is expected to make significant changes to the schedule after owners approved a 17-game schedule for the 2021 season.
According to King, the NFL will replace the doubleheader with a Week 18 Saturday doubleheader. Those two games will be flexed, so fans won’t know until December which teams will be playing on that weekend.
The Saturday doubleheader in the final week of the regular season was added in the NFL’s new television contracts, and will begin this season.
Per CBS, The “Monday Night Football” doubleheader was a staple on the schedule since 2006, as the late game featured many West Coast teams.
Here is the expected format for Week 18:
– Saturday doubleheader
– 13 games Sunday
– One “Sunday Night Football” game which will feature the top flexed game of the weekend