The Orioles and MLB Should Tell the NFL to Shut Up

The overinflated ego of the National Football League is rearing its typically ugly head again, asking for nonsense that it has no business asking about.

The issue at hand is that the NFL has had its Super Bowl Champion play on Thursday nights to open the season since 2004. It's been less than ten years; it's not like the Masters or even the Kentucky Derby in its association with this midweek opening.

Last year, the New York Giants opened their season on a Wednesday night because of the Democratic National Convention. The convention wasn't taking place in New York, by the way; it was in Charlotte. But okay, fine. A move for politics makes sense so it doesn't take attention away from the business of the country. I guess.

But this year, the NFL wants the Baltimore Orioles to move their Thursday game against the Chicago White Sox (September 5) to a day game because the NFL wants to put the season opener featuring the Ravens on Thursday night. Wednesday is not available because it is the start of Rosh Hashanah.

The crux of the problem is that the two teams share a parking lot due to the proximity of the two stadiums. Here's a view of M&T Bank Stadium (Ravens) and Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Orioles):

 

Julia Robertson/AP Photo



The joint parking lot makes it impossible to have games at both fields. The religious holiday precludes the NFL from putting the game on Wednesday. The Orioles have night games scheduled Friday and Saturday as well.

So why is the NFL set on having the game on Thursday move?

Why not ask to have Friday or Saturday moved?

Or, better yet: Why not just play the damn game Sunday night?!

NFL, you do remember Sunday night, right? It's where you have your signature game every other freaking week of the regular season? You know...THAT night!

Oh, and guess what? The Orioles have a day game on Sunday. Starts at 1:35pm. Works perfectly.

Part of me wants to think that the NFL just doesn't seem to understand how baseball works. The Orioles and the White Sox are both coming in from playing other teams. The Orioles have a night game in Cleveland on Wednesday before they come back to Charm City. The White Sox have a shorter trip since they'll be in the Bronx playing the Yankees. Both of those games are night games.

Now, Steve Bischotti, the owner of the Ravens, has said that he is willing to make the Orioles whole, covering any lost revenue that the Orioles would incur for, you know, basically doing his team a solid and moving the game because, hey, we're the NFL team and we won the Super Bowl and you know, civic pride and blah, blah, blah NFL.

But as Katy Feeney of Major League Baseball put it to the Baltimore Sun (and she knows since she's the VP for, um, scheduling), a change of this magnitude involves more than the Orioles:

The White Sox would take a broadcast revenue hit, and the O's would take a broadcast revenue and attendance hit. And there is a baseball operations impact. Conceivably both teams could be in playoff contention, so it wouldn't be fair to them to make them play a day game after both teams played a night game and traveled the night before. We make accommodations in our scheduling in the postseason. We work with the NFL. But this was something that was brought to us as a possibility just three weeks or a month ago. We always want to work with whoever wants to work with us, but why should these teams be punished?"
 

Also, according to an ESPN.com story, there is a rule at play:

The Orioles are scheduled to play the Indians in Cleveland on Sept. 4 at 7:05 p.m. Under baseball's collective bargaining agreement, getaway games are not to be scheduled or rescheduled to start later than 5 p.m. if either club is required to travel for a day game, scheduled the next day, between cities in which the in-flight time is more than one and a half hours.

The rule can be waived by a vote by the players on the team it affects, in this case the Orioles. 

There are a lot of moving parts here. Because I think that moving the game in Cleveland would also affect the Indians, and the point about broadcast revenue being hit would affect Cleveland as well if their game was moved. So now you have three teams affected by this. The flight time from NYC to Baltimore is less than 90 minutes, so they are not affected the same way. Also, their game starts at 6:05pm so they would have an hour head start on the Orioles.

Look, I get that the NFL is supposed to be king, and that all are expected to bow down and worship the almighty shield. But this is bull of the highest order.

It's a difficult situation, and I guess that there is honor in being made to feel special by getting a primetime game. It certainly helps NBC's bottom line, since the network languishes in fifth place right now and their primetime schedule, outside of a couple of shows, needs all the help it can get.

But the NFL should not have to prop up a network's schedule. Furthermore, baseball's schedule was set and out a long time ago. The NFL schedule, outside of two games, operates on a rotational matrix; if they want to get out in front of things, you could release the schedule a helluva lot further out and have spent a LOT more time working on this. You knew the Ravens were Super Bowl champs on February 3; get on the phone February 4 with all of the potentially affected parties and start to figure out the logistics at that point to see what accommodations, if any, can or need to be made.

To come in now, though, is arrogant and preposterous. It's not quite at the "Lack of planning on YOUR part is not MY responsibility" level, but don't act like having the Super Bowl champion playing on Thursday night is some kind of sacrosant tradition that must be preserved at all costs or society is going to crumble in a heap; that the seas will start to boil and the ground will be rent asunder; that cats and dogs will start living together and mass hysteria will ensue.

Don't say, "Oh, I guess the Ravens will have to go on the road. Boo hoo hoo."

Open them at home on Sunday night against Pittsburgh. Open the Seahawks at home against the 49ers on Thursday. There's your big national television game involving one of the participants from last year's Super Bowl that will get a big number. Done.

Just don't pretend, NFL, like you don't have options. Exercise them and think about things. Stop throwing your weight around and acting like a spoiled child and get creative about solutions.