The Rams are about to make a little NFL scheduling history.
When they line up against the Bills on Monday night, it will be their fourth prime-time appearance in the first five games of the season - something no team has ever done before. No NFL club has opened a year with that kind of run in the spotlight.
The path there has been a strange one, even by modern league standards. In Week 1, the Rams faced the 49ers in a game that started Friday morning in Australia but aired Thursday night in the United States.
Week 2 brought Monday Night Football against the Giants. Week 3 sent them to Sunday Night Football against the Broncos.
Then came Week 4, their first Sunday afternoon game against the Eagles. Now it’s back to Monday night for Week 5 against Buffalo.
There’s a simple reason the Rams ended up with so many showcase games: the league expected them to be one of the best teams in football and wanted them on the biggest stages. There’s also a broader scheduling reality at work. The NFL now has prime-time windows on Sunday, Monday and Thursday every week, plus occasional games on other nights, which gives the league far more room to slot marquee teams into the spotlight.
That hasn’t come without a tradeoff. The more top teams the NFL moves into prime time, the thinner the Sunday afternoon slate becomes.
The league is also spreading premium matchups across more international games, more holiday games and more standalone nights like Thanksgiving Eve, Black Friday and Christmas Day. Those spots are designed to showcase teams the NFL wants front and center, and they pull those teams out of the traditional Sunday afternoon window.
After the Bills game, the Rams are scheduled to play five straight Sunday afternoon games, as long as none of them get flexed. But they still have more spotlight dates ahead, including a Thanksgiving Eve matchup with the Packers, a Thursday night game against the Chiefs and a Christmas Night game against the Seahawks.
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Eagles Rainy Loss Sparked A Viral Moment Fans Didn't See
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For the Rams, the conditions only added to a comeback win that stood out for more than the scoreboard. Kyren Williams was a big part of the rally and later spoke with Andrews afterward, praising his team in an interview that fit the mood of a victory earned the hard way, on a night when even the broadcast booth had to fight through the elements. [Read more 🡒]