THE NFL’s clash with the College Football Playoff this Saturday has been slammed by a sports analyst.
Pro football and the college ranks are competing for eyeballs in a rarely seen event.
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs face a Saturday game at the Houston Texans[/caption]
SMU will host Penn State in the first of three College Football Playoff games on Saturday[/caption]
The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff begins Friday night.
Three games are scheduled for Saturday from midday ET.
But Saturday also sees two high-profile games take place in the NFL.
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Houston Texans at 1 pm ET.
The Chiefs are back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions and have the best record in the league.
Their game will be followed by the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC North division clash.
Both teams are among the best in the AFC, and they will clash at 4.30 pm ET.
The first game will be shown on NBC with Fox taking over for the latter clash.
At the same time, TNT will show two games from the College Football Playoff.
SMU takes on Penn State from midday ET before Texas visits Clemson at 4 pm ET.
The NFL double header is on free-to-air television, giving in an even better chance of winning a ratings battle.
And Tony Kornheiser was unhappy the CFP was going up against Mahomes and Co.
“The NFL isn’t going after college football,” he said on Pardon the Interruption.
“The NFL has had this Saturday window after Army-Navy for years.
“This is college football attempting to spit in the eye of the NFL – this is a different thing.
NFL on Netflix
Netflix will be the global home of the NFL on Christmas Day this year.
The streaming service will show two special holiday games live around the world.
Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs kick off the double header against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 pm ET.
And they’ll be followed by the Baltimore Ravens at the Houston Texans from 4.30 pm ET.
That game will also feature a halftime show from Beyonce in her home town of Houston, Texas.
Netflix also confirmed their broadcast team for the day, led by Fox NFL commentator Greg Olsen and former Good Morning Football host Kay Adams.
“I want to see how Patrick Mahomes does on a bad ankle and I want to see how Lamar Jackson does against Pittsburgh.
“Those are games I want to see, as much as a I love college football – nobody beats the NFL.”
Kornheiser cited examples from other sports to demonstrate the NFL’s television ratings dominance.
“Golf gets out of the golf business when NFL season starts in September,” he said.
“The NFL drills baseball – baseball rearranges it’s playoff schedule to not go head to head with the NFL.
“The NFL annihilates the NBA. The NBA was doing fine on Christmas Day for a few years.
“Someone in the NFL office said ‘let’s crush them like ants’ which they did.
“Now nobody even knows who’s playing in the NBA on Christmas Day.
“But football on football – this is pretty new.”
