SNF on NBC Turns 20

On Wednesday, May 14, 2025, the NFL released their full schedule for the 2025 season, which is the league's 106th season. The schedule release is the last big NFL date during to offseason prior to the first preseason game taking place, and it's an occurrence that I just can't help but love. It's during the tail end of the playoffs that the year's opponents are unveiled, but we would have to wait until a few weeks after the draft for an actual full 272-game schedule. I love this because as a Green Bay Packers fan, I look for those national TV spots we get, and regarding regional coverage, I have my fingers crossed on hopes that the Packers will air in my area.

Last year, when I wrote about the schedule, I wrote about it all at once. This year, I'm doing something different. I will do select stories focusing on the national TV spots in the schedule. On a normal week, the three main national TV spots are Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football. There's also the international games, and holidays (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas). For this story, I want to focus on Sunday Night Football.

It's hard to believe that this year, NBC's Sunday Night Football turns 20. Sunday Night Football has actually been around since 1987, and I'm barely old enough to remember ESPN's early years airing Sunday night games, and I recall TNT airing the games as well. ESPN was the Sunday night network until the end of the 2005 season, and 2006 changed so much. That was the year that NBC returned to the NFL fray for the first time since Super Bowl XXXII. During that period, NBC had the AFC package during Sunday's regional coverage, working alongside CBS and later Fox. NBC's AFC package went to CBS in 1998, and regarding 2006, one of the many developments in NFL telecasts included NBC taking over Sunday Night Football from ESPN, which took over Monday Night Football from ABC.

For the first several years, NBC's coverage began with Opening Night, that first Thursday of the regular season, and it would be followed by 16 Sunday Night games in 17 weeks (with one week off usually to avoid conflicting with the World Series). NBC originally aired both Wild Card Saturday games (back when there were four such games that weekend), but now it's a Wild Card game and a Divisional Playoff game, and NBC now airs the Super Bowl every four years--airing the ones where the number is evenly divisible by four. Since 2021, the NFL regular season is now 18 weeks, but one thing hasn't changed in the two decades that have passed: the NFL regular season begins on NBC, and ends on NBC.

This season's Sunday Night Football banner consists of 21 regular season games: Opening Night, 18 straight Sundays, the Thanksgiving primetime game, and a game exclusively on Peacock--with the Peacock exclusive games starting in the 2023 season. Flex scheduling, of course, comes into play, and for Sunday Night Football, it starts with Week 5. In games between Weeks 5 and 10, only up to two of the games can be flexed, while any games between Weeks 11 and 17 can be flexed. For SNF Weeks 5-13, any flex moves have to be announced no later than 12 days in advance, while for Weeks 14-17, it's no later than six days in advance.

And then there's the final week. This is the 16th year of the final week's all-divisional schedule, which started in 2010. The final week's SNF game (as well as that week's entire schedule) is announced after the conclusion of Week 17's SNF game, and because Week 18's SNF game is the 272nd and final game of the regular season, that slot is saved for the best and most vital matchup of the week. Usually, it's a head-to-head game for a division title. That was the case in so many of the past 15 seasons. In 2010, it was the Rams and Seahawks battling for the NFC West. The NFC East took that center stage three years straight in 2011-13. Last year, it was the Lions and Vikings battling for the NFC North and the #1 seed.

Of course, as a Packers fan, I have to mention the 2016 finale between the Packers and Lions. This was the centerpiece of the Packers' "Run the Table" run that year, going from starting 4-6 to actually reaching the playoffs prior to that game kicking off. The Packers and Lions (the latter also being playoff-bound) still had to settle the division, and in the end, it was the Packers winning 31-24 to win the NFC North and end the regular season winning six straight games.

So with that, let's talk about this year's collection of SNF games:

Per tradition, the Super Bowl Champion will start the season on that Opening Night, which is Thursday, September 4, 2025. On that evening, the Super Bowl LIX Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, will host the Dallas Cowboys in an NFC East battle. Honestly, I thought for sure that we'd get an NFC Championship rematch to kick off the season: Commanders @ Eagles. But NBC can't resist having the Cowboys on. So that's Opening Night, and three nights later, the first official Sunday Night Football game is a rematch of last year's Divisional Playoff: Bills hosting the Ravens. Of course, we all know what happened the last time the Ravens and Bills faced off on NBC.

I mentioned that flex scheduling on SNF would start in Week 5, and the matchup that week is Patriots/Bills. No more than two of the games between Weeks 5-10 can be flexed, though, I severely doubt we'll see any flexing in that group. For a game to be in danger of losing that spot, one or both of the teams in said game have to be really heading south, and just by looking at those six matchups, I can't see that happening. Regarding the games between Weeks 11-17, well, that's possibly another story. Honestly, I expect Weeks 15, 16, and 17 to all have different SNF games by then. I have a sinking feeling.

Regarding NBC's Thanksgiving game, it's an AFC North clash between the Bengals and Ravens, and if last year's meetings are any indication, this will be absolutely epic! The Peacock game on December 27 is a mystery; Ravens/Packers would be nice. And this year, Super Bowl LX will air on NBC on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.

When NBC took over Sunday Night Football, the slot took the level of prestige that had been held by Monday Night Football since it began in 1970. SNF is now the premier slot in the week's action, and playing on that Sunday Night spotlight is a huge deal. I always enjoy Sunday Night Football, it's always amazing, and I am elated that the Packers will have (at least) two games in that slot: Week 4 (@ Dallas) and Week 8 (@ Pittsburgh). This year's batch looks quite delicious, and we'll see it flex scheduling will make it even more appetizing.