Pats-Colts: Overkill, and Proud Of It
Posted October 30th, 2007 by Rich Heldenfels
This item appeared in today's e-mail:
When the 8-0 New England Patriots visit the 7-0 Indianapolis Colts on Sunday (CBS, 4:15 PM ET), it marks the latest meeting in a season for two unbeaten teams. NFL Network will be there with record-breaking coverage of its own featuring 36.5 hours (34 hours in high definition) of Patriots and Colts specific programming – a record number of hours devoted to a non-Super Bowl game. Among those 36.5 hours is an extra hour of coverage after midnight Saturday made possible by the end of Daylight saving time and clocks being turned back an hour at 2:00 AM.
I love this item for two reasons. First, that they're bragging about devoting so much time to a regular-season football game, when that game is already getting coverage overkill at every turn. (This morning, one of the guys on Sporting News Radio actually tried to minimize Colts-Pats hype, although that meant talking about the game anyway, to explain the minimizing.) Second, I'm just tickled by the idea of Daylight Savings Time allowing for even more overkill. After all, most of us look at it as an opportunity to sleep.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:13 am
It'd be nice if we could see the "Game of the Year" on free television, wouldn't it? I'd like to see the NFL give an exemption for this game, allowing WOIO to broadcast it, but that won't happen.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
It *is* on Free TV…CBS has the game.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
WOIO is Cleveland's CBS affiliate and will most likely blackout the game.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:03 pm
They have to black it out, per league rules. A station cannot broadcast a game against a home game for their home market. Since the Browns play at 4 PM, albeit on FOX, that means the CBS cannot show a football game at all at 4 PM. So, no, it won't be on in the Cleveland market at all.