NBC and Sunday Night Football look to have missed out on the Rams

In all likelihood, Sunday Night Football looks to have missed out on the Los Angeles Rams.

It’s not a stretch to say that the Sunday Night Football product on NBC is and has been far superior to what is seen and heard on ESPN’s failing Monday Night Football. But while MNF is locked into a schedule produced early in the calendar year, NBC has flexibility that has only been used thus far to keep the Los Angeles Rams off their air when they are the best team in football.

That’s unfortunate, as Week 8 and Week 9 have two of the league’s best quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees playing the 7-0 Rams. As of this writing, NBC has the New Orleans Saints playing on the road at the Minnesota Vikings in Week 8, and Week 9 featuring the Green Bay Packers at the New England Patriots. It’s hard to see the brass at NBC Sports bumping Tom Brady and the Pats out of prime-time for what would be a likely better game with the Rams at New Orleans.

But I’d expect the schedule as it sits now to hold form, meaning that for the next two weeks Los Angeles is relegated to Sunday afternoon regional coverage.

That’s profoundly unfortunate and totally predictable.

With a mediocre Seattle Seahawks team on the Rams schedule in Week 10, and Week 11 between Los Angeles and the Kansas City Chiefs already on Monday Night Football, SNF doesn’t look to have the Rams in their rotation until Week 15 when they play the Philadelphia Eagles, and given their current state of play and a 3-4 record that may be a trend, that could get flexed back into Sunday afternoon as well.

Unless the Rams at the Detroit Lions in Week 13 or at the Chicago Bears in Week 14 become compelling contests in December, Sunday Night Football likely misses out on the best team in the NFL because of, you know, East Coast bias.