Report: Broncos, Penner vote for Thursday Night Football flexing as it passes
May 22, 2023, 3:31 PM | Updated: 3:33 pm
The NFL has made a significant change to Thursday Night Football when it comes to flexing games.
Team owners voted on Monday to allow up to two games a year, from Weeks 13-17 on TNF, to be flexed. ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first one to report the details.
Giants, Jets, Packers, Bears, Raiders, Detroit, Bengals, Pittsburgh voted against it – to no avail.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) May 22, 2023
Based on the “no” votes above, that means Broncos owner / CEO Greg Penner voted yes on the measure. It’s an interesting development, considering Penner was one of two owners to abstain from an unofficial vote back in March.
That vote was reportedly very close, with Penner viewed as a potential swing voter later in the process. The league needed 24 votes exactly to get this passed, so Penner’s was a key one.
The NFL will have to give teams 28 days notice if they’re going to be flexed from a Sunday to Thursday, so it will give squads plenty of heads up. Still, asking players to suit up potentially twice on short weeks throughout the season has already caused a lot of outcry.
Amazon Prime carries the games and showed some stinkers a season ago. This is the NFL’s way of attempting to make sure that doesn’t happen again in 2023, although with the ability to only flex twice that could still be the case.
The Broncos are scheduled to be on TNF just once this season, a road game against the Chiefs in Week 6. They’ll have to be far more competitive than they were a year ago to receive any TNF flexing consideration down the road.
***
