We’re down to the penultimate week of the NFL season. That means that even with a couple bonus Saturday games in Week 16, the schedule is left with just six nationally-televised games in exclusive time slots between now and the end of the regular season.
One of those slots belongs to the 2-12 Tennessee Titans and the 2-12 Jacksonville Jaguars, two comically bad teams from small markets who offer literally no sex appeal to your average football fan.
The Titans have won just a single game since Week 2, while the Jags have lost all but eight of their 46 games since the start of 2012. It’s been over half a decade since either franchise has made the playoffs. Their fan bases are small (relatively speaking) and they don’t draw large audiences (again, in NFL terms at least) when they’re decent, let alone when they suck.
To get an unscientific feel for how unpopular these teams are in comparison to their peers, Deadspin notes that they both rank in the bottom six in terms of Facebook “likes.”
You can’t hate on the NFL for making this a prime-time game. By rule, every organization must play at least one game on a Thursday. And Thursday games can’t be flexed for obvious logistical reasons. But what I don’t understand is how the schedule-makers let this be the last Thursday game of the year. We all knew these teams were likely going to struggle this season, and yet here we are in Week 16 with 2-12 Tennessee at 2-12 Jacksonville. You’d think the NFL, which owns NFL Network, would want viewers to have a better taste in their mouths regarding Thursday Night Football.
But instead, this’ll be the last Thursday night game fans will be exposed to for another nine months (that is if they watch at all, which isn’t a better alternative from the league’s standpoint).
Instead, they’re giving us the worst December prime-time game of the 21st century, at least on paper. Last year’s Week 14 TNF matchup between the 3-9 Jaguars and the 2-10 Houston Texans and a 2004 Week 16 ESPN Sunday Night Football matchup between the 3-11 Cleveland Browns and the 3-11 Miami Dolphins come close, but the Jags and Texans still had a combined winning percentage of .208, while Cleveland and Miami were at .214.
This game? Try a winning percentage of .143.
One small consolation is that draftniks will watch this game knowing that there’s a lot riding on it when it comes to the Marcus Mariota sweepstakes. If the draft took place today, Tennessee and Jacksonville would pick second and third, respectively. The loser has a very good shot at landing the top selection, while the winner will have no chance.
But is that enough to cause you to tune in? Just in case, I’ll leave this here to remind you that new episodes of Mom, Two and a Half Men, The McCarthys and Elementary will air on CBS along with The Biggest Loser on NBC and something called The Taste on ABC.
The Taste: The 13 remaining cooks compete in a holiday-theme challenge that features dishes based on fowl and spiced chocolate desserts. Naomi Pomeroy is the guest judge.
Sold.
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About Brad Gagnon
Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com, a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at CBSSports.com, Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Comeback Media, but his day gig has him covering the NFL nationally for Bleacher Report.