Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was not happy about a quirk in the schedule involving his team, and an NFL official said Burrow’s complaint is valid, meaning there could be a change down the line.
Burrow took issue with having to play the Baltimore Ravens on the road on Thanksgiving night at 8:20 p.m., making it the fourth straight time they have had to play a primetime game against their rivals on the road. Burrow was also upset that all the Bengals’ home games against the Ravens happened at 1 p.m., and that he and his teammates are not picked for an international game.
“Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight primetime wasn’t ideal,” Burrow said during his May 20 minicamp press conference. “Maybe make one of those in Cincinnati next year. Please. Maybe an international game next year, too.”
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling, said Burrow’s accusations had some validity.
“It’s fair,” North told Bengals team reporter Geoff Hobson. “It’s not a one or two-year sort of a league where you fix every problem every other year or every two years. Once you start getting to the same thing three years in a row, four, or five years in a row, whether it’s a short week Thursday on the road or opening on the road. When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point.”
North added that the quirk was part of the best schedule that came out for the league and the Bengals, like every other team in the league, were not happy with some part of their schedule that they felt was a disservice to them.
There was a silver lining that North tried to point out to the Bengals, stating the Bengals were a team that warranted the national spotlight and playing on Thanksgiving for the first time since 2010 when they lost to the Jets.
“Both Ravens-Bengals games last year were spectacular. We wanted to make sure that we ended up with at least one of them in primetime this year. We got it. I’m sure Bengals fans would have preferred it in Cincinnati, but it should be fun for you guys to ruin Baltimore’s Thanksgiving.”
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Chris Franklin may be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com.