2024 NFL Season Thread





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With a Congressional law that prohibits the NFL from playing on Friday nights, how is the league able to play tonight (in Brazil, of all places)? A thread....
The 1961 Sports Broadcasting Act gave the NFL an antitrust exemption, allowing them to pool the media rights of all the teams collectively, to negotiate rights deals with the networks. It is the reason all NFL games are national broadcasts.

In allowing this, Congress prohibited the NFL from airing “all or a substantial part” of pro football games on Fridays after 6pm ET, in deference to high school football games around the country.

But the timing of the prohibition created a loophole that the NFL jumped through with tonight's game. It prohibited Friday night NFL games "beginning with the second Friday of September of each year.”

With an early Labor Day this year, tonight is the first Friday of September, the first time this has coincided with the start of the NFL season since 2019. Thus, the NFL is in the clear with the language of the law tonight. It won't be able to do so over the next few years. Finally, as for the Black Friday game, the NFL got around the prohibition there by starting the game at 3pmET.
 
So punish the teams now also because the player broke a rule?

 
Dak Prescott resets the QB market with a 4 year $240 million contract. It includes $231 million guaranteed which part of is a $80 million signing bonus.
 
So punish the teams now also because the player broke a rule?

Makes sense. Many of these teams are implicit and don’t really try to reign in players who play dirty.
 
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