As much as I love watching the first week of the NFL season and eat up the nationally televised game on Thursday, I have to ask why two Monday Night Games. I know the easy answer is revenue, a word likely to be uttered more and more as the season advances and the possibility of a 2011 lockout looms, but I ask because the second Monday Night game is the San Diego Chargers-Kansas City Chiefs game.
For my money, the best game of the week might actually be the first game that night, the Baltimore Ravens-New York Jets game. That game features two of the league’s two best defenses and two best up-and-coming quarterbacks. The late game features the all-but-official AFC West champion Chargers and a Chiefs team in the second year of a very difficult rebuild.
Since there had to be a second Monday night game, I checked out the rest of the schedule for any possible West Coast home games. I found one, the San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks. Now, since the league knew they were going to have two Monday night games, would it not have made more sense to try and schedule a decently competitive game in the first week of the season?
Am I supposed to get excited about whether or not the Chiefs offensive line has improved enough to support Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones? Am I supposed to fall asleep happy that I now know whether Malcom Floyd is a viable replacement for Vincent Jackson? The only way this game matters is if somebody has a player from either team on their fantasy club.
Now, the NFL hit it out of the park when they made the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins game the Sunday night game. One of the most competitive divisions in the 2010 season and a storied rivalry make this a must see.
Perhaps this is supposed to be the game that steadily brings our collective heart rate down to a resting beat, just in time to get back to work Tuesday morning.