NFL switches Seahawks-Cardinals to Sunday night because of Raiders COVID-19 cases
Sunday night football has become such a valued commodity for the NFL and NBC, the league and network are going out of their ways to ensure their product.
Such as moving the Seahawks-Cardinals to primetime on three days’ notice.
The NFL announced Thursday it is moving the first NFC West game this season for Seattle (5-0) at Arizona (4-2) from Sunday afternoon at 1:05 p.m. to a 5:20 p.m. kickoff Sunday for NBC’s national-television showcase.
The reason: the Las Vegas Raiders’ COVID-19 outbreak.
The Raiders had been scheduled to host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccanneers in this weekend’s Sunday night game. Then Las Vegas right tackle Trent Brown tested positive for the coronavirus this week. Wednesday, the Raiders sent home their entire starting offensive line per contract tracing and new, more-stringent NFL protocols requiring isolation after a positive test result. Raiders safety Jonathan Abram was also in isolation Thursday.
Those players are reportedly heading to the reserve/COVID-19 list. That makes the league nervous the Raiders may not play their game with the Buccaneers, which the NFL has rescheduled for now to Sunday at 1:05 p.m.—into the window the Seahawks-Cardinals had.
“These decisions were made out of an abundance of caution to ensure that a game would be available for fans on Sunday Night Football,” the league said in its announcement of the schedule change.
This will be the third time in their first six games the Seahawks have played on Sunday night. They beat New England and Minnesota at home in primetime among their first five victories this season, before last week’s bye.
The Seahawks won’t mind the switch to Sunday night in Arizona.
Since Pete Carroll arrived to coach them in 2010, the Seahawks are 12-4-1 on Sunday nights and an NFL-best 31-7-1 in primetime games.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 1:29 PM.
