ESPN will televise NFL Wild Card game for first time in 2014

Jan 5, 2014; Green Bay, WI, USA; The NFL Wild Card logo on the field prior to the 2013 NFC wild card playoff football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /

For the first time in the network’s 35-year history, ESPN will be airing an NFL Wild Card game this offseason thus taking one away from either CBS, FOX or NBC in the process. It’s unclear which conference Wild Card game will be switched to ESPN or of more than one will be moved, but the network is getting a game regardless and it seems about time that it happens.

Not that anyone is feeling sorry for ESPN, but you’d have thought that a network as large in the sports world as ESPN is would have secured a game by now. It somehow hasn’t but that will all change this year when a game is hosted on the network for the first time.

The announcement comes ahead of the much anticipated schedule release this week which will unveil all of the match pus and when we can expect to see them. While we won’t know who will be playing int he Wild Card round for some time, we do know that ESPN is now in on the fun and with their foot in the door, the next question is if they’ll ever host a Super Bowl and make history as the first non-cable network to do so.

While that seems unlikely to ever happen, there’s a chance ESPN at least gets in on more playoff games as the first baby step towards that has been taken.

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