Apparently there is such a thing as too much football.
The NFL is stopping its polarizing “Monday Night Football” doubleheader after negative feedback about the format, which sometimes included concurrent games compared to consecutive contests.
“This speaks to another theme of how we’re always talking to our partners,” NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder said Tuesday, according to Pro Football Talk. “One of the things we realized with Disney collectively, when we did the deal five years ago, we thought adding two games on Monday night would be a great thing for fans. It was more free football that was outside of a Sunday afternoon. And I think we collectively struggled and realized fans felt like they were conflicted to choose between those games.”
The NFL is not one to restrain itself when it comes to adding football games on TV — just think the recently added Christmas triple-header and this year’s game in Australia — but in this situation, it appears the league believes there are better ways to incorporate extra games into the season.
The 2025 season included Monday night doubleheaders in Weeks 2, 4, 6 and 7, and Schroeder said the league believed there’s a “better way” to air those four contests.
Week 2 featured the Texans hosting at 7 p.m. ET, followed by the Raiders at 10 p.m. ET. Week 4 had Miami and Denver welcoming foes an hour apart. Week 6 again had kickoffs separated by an hour in Atlanta and Virginia (Commanders) and Week 7 had the three-hour stagger between Detroit and Seattle.
The NFL’s owners approved of reallocating the games this past October when signing off on the league selling NFL Network and NFL media components to Disney, according to Sports Business Journal.
The outlet reported the end of the doubleheaders, saying that some of the games would be shifted onto NFL Network instead.
Schroeder reportedly said Tuesday the league had five games to assign for the 2026 season, with a Thanksgiving Eve game a consideration.
The plan is to have the logistics settled by the expected schedule release in May.
“And that’s the best part, we can look at the numbers, we can look at the metrics, and our fans will speak to us,” Schroeder said, according to PFT. “So, we’re going to continue to look at those other windows throughout the year on top of maybe those other windows or maybe late-season Saturdays and see how the market comes back to us as well, with what we think the best possible way to deploy those games are. We think it’ll be an exciting way, an exciting addition to the 2026 schedule.”
