At the league’s spring meetings, the NFL’s owners voted 24-8 to allow for Thursday Night Football flex scheduling on Amazon Prime. Prime, now an increasingly influential partner in the NFL’s product, has the option to improve up to two of their matchups in the final month or so of the season. This comes off of last month’s news that Prime is going to be given a Black Friday standalone game and that not every team is promised a primetime matchup under the NFL’s current broadcasting deals.
Among the eight teams that voted no against the flex schedule were the Green Bay Packers, who were joined by the New York Giants, New York Jets, Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh Steelers, Las Vegas Raiders, Detroit Lions and Cincinnati Bengals, generally, teams with large fan bases that are most likely at risk to lose a Sunday game to TNF.