A new report details how the NFL exploited a loophole that allowed them to schedule the Philadelphia Eagles-Green Bay Packers game in São Paulo, Brazil on a Friday night.
Arena Corinthians played host to the Philadelphia Eagles-Green Bay Packers Week 1 tilt, the first-ever NFL game to take place in Brazil. And if the league didn’t take advantage of a very specific loophole, they wouldn’t have been able to run this game on a Friday.
As noted by Chris Vannini of The Athletic, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 bars the NFL from broadcasting games on Fridays and Saturdays from the second Saturday in September through the second Saturday in December. This act was put into place to prevent the NFL from impacting attendance for high school and college games in the United States.
But because the first Friday of September fell on the 6th, the NFL was able to schedule the Philadelphia Eagles’ contest against Green Bay the day after the Kickoff Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimroe Ravens on Thursday.
Last year, the NFL ran a Miami Dolphins-New York Jets game on Black Friday. The Chiefs will host the AFC West rival Las Vegas Raiders in a Black Friday game at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 29.
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This is because the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 actually allows the NFL to run a game on Fridays as long as a significant part of the game is over by 6 p.m. local time. The Chiefs-Raiders Black Friday game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. EST
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