Why is there no football this week?

Well, we do have Pro Bowl festivities, but we all know that’s not real football. The NFL season isn’t over, so why don’t we have games this week?

Hot off the AFC and NFC Championship games, we’re all excited to see this year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, representing the NFC and AFC, respectively. But unfortunately, we will have to wait a little bit longer, as the conclusion to thie NFL Playoffs isn’t until next week.

This week, the Pro Bowl festivities, which will look dramatically different and be spread across multiple days this week, will have to be enough to hold you over. Or, you can go back and watch replays of classic games or something like that.

But why is there a break in the first place?

Why is there a break between NFL championship games and the Super Bowl?

There are plenty of reasons behind the NFL typically scheduling a week off of meaningful games in between the championship weekend and the penultimate game.

Top among them is media hype. The extra week allows the NFL and every media agency that creates interest in the game some additional time to hype up storylines and get fans excited to tune into the game.

The game is also a huge week-long spectacle at the destination — this year, Glendale, Arizona — and it’s logistically easier for every organization, personality, celebrity, etc. to get themselves to the destination and set for on-site media events throughout the week of the Super Bowl. It would be doable, but logistically tight to make everything happen in the span of seven days.

From the game perspective, 13 days off for each team allows teams to rest their best players, which creates an opportunity for the best game possible between the final two teams.

If you’re thinking, ‘This isn’t how it usually is’, well, actually, it is! Here’s what an NFL spokesperson told The Guardian about the week break in 2016:

"“The two-week break before the Super Bowl started with Super Bowl I,” Greg Aiello, an NFL spokesman, told the Guardian. “The concept was to give the promotion of the game time to build. The two-week break has been standard procedure since the first Super Bowl. There have been one-week breaks a handful of times when circumstances dictated it. Another benefit is that it gives the two teams more rest and recovery from injury.”"

You are right that the game is later this year than most other years, though. For a long time, the game was played on the first Sunday of February. Since last year, the game is played on the second Sunday of February because the league extended the regular season by one week.

Hopefully, you didn’t order all your Super Bowl takeout food already. If so, you’re just going to have to run it back again next week.