When does it stop being a coincidence? Although the Cincinnati Bengals have the easiest travel schedule when based on where they have to go to play games with their 2025 slate, maybe franchise quarterback Joe Burrow has a point with this one thing? He is so sick and tired of having to play the division rival Baltimore Ravens in primetime at their place. Why can Cincinnati not got one at home?
This comes after an atricle that was published on the Bengals' team website. NFL vice president of broadcast planning and scheduling Mike North tended to agree with Burrow's point that maybe this game should have been played in Cincinnati? He then expounded upon the league's overall thought process when it comes to putting a schedule together. Not every team can catch every single break.
Let's just say that Burrow is not going to love North's explanation for why this happened yet again.
“It’s fair. It’s not a one-or-two years 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.”
For those who need a bit of a refresher on the situation, Burrow's issue with the NFL schedule is that it will be the third time in a row that the Bengals have played the Ravens in primetime in Baltimore. Cincinnati will be coming off a game in which they played on Sunday the week prior. The game in question will be taking place on Thanksgiving, so the Bengals could play spoiler in this rivalry game.
I think this all just goes to show that when the NFL creates a schedule, it may oversee major trends.
Joe Burrow has a point in picking apart how the NFL schedule is created
Look. I think it is important for emerging division rivalries like the one we are seeing between Baltimore and Cincinnati be featured in primetime to gain even more exposure. In a four-team division, there exist six different rivalries. While every team has their big rival or two, not all rivalries are created equally. It was not until very recently was Baltimore and Cincinnati able to hold its own.
As long as these two AFC North teams have two of the five best quarterbacks in the NFL in Burrow and fellow Heisman Trophy brethren Lamar Jackson, at least one of these biennial games should be featuring in primetime annually. Ideally, you would want to have them rotate between Baltimore and Cincinnati, but we are seeing that not even the most keen of scheduling eyes can catch this trend.
Besides the fact of wanting to play this primetime game at home, Burrow understands all too well what the optics look like if they were to lose on the road to Baltimore. Only one of them can win the division. Standalone games have a natural tendency to resonate with us viewers more than other Sunday games. It is all about painting the narrative. Let's not tear down one brand to build up another.
Let's just say if Burrow does not get his wish next season, then North completely wasted our time.