On Tuesday, on 710 ESPN Radio Los Angeles, Travis and Sliwa discussed how the NFL has consistently been able to turn non-game events into must-follow action and generate ratings and revenue during the nearly seven-month offseason. The special promoting the Thursday night release of the full 2022 season schedule is a good example.
“I’m sure we’re going to be 10 weeks into the NFL season [and say]’Man, the team didn’t turn out the way we imagined’ [or] ‘Oh, this team is better than we thought,'” said show co-host Allen Sliwa. “That’s what makes this part of the year so exciting — that you start figuring out what the matchups are.”
Nonetheless, the NFL was able to captivate fans by hosting a spectacle of offseason events. That includes the league’s forthcoming release of prime-time television programming, rather than simply dumping the weekly matchups with minimal grandeur and melodrama.
“They’re so good at turning things that aren’t games into things,” said show co-host Travis Rodgers. “The design is a huge thing; the combine is a thing; schedule sharing is one thing; Agency is one thing; Training camps are one thing.”
While the NFL schedule may not yet be fully released, some prime-time matchups have been announced in advance, potentially to generate interest from fans, media partners, and the players themselves. It’s safe to say that the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams will be getting much of the primetime action on the NFL’s revamped broadcast schedule in the 2022 season. In fact, it was recently announced that the Rams would play Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos on Christmas Day in a game that would be simulcast on CBS and Paramount+, along with the inclusion of a special presentation on Nickelodeon sure to mark the network’s signature slime will contain .
Aside from the team’s success on the field, however, there are other reasons the current moment is a good time to schedule the Rams for prime-time games.
“Let me tell you — the Rams are really good,” Rodgers said. “They play in a place with great visuals. Celebrities will be in the stands. A brand new stadium. Everyone loves coming to LA. This is the place where people will keep coming back.”
It wasn’t always guaranteed that the NFL would be ready to return to the City of Angels, and whether the league would be welcome back. But since the construction of the $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium with NFL Network studios at the league’s new headquarters coupled with the early success of the Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, football’s reincarnation in Southern California has been largely successful so far.
“It’s almost like icing on the cake,” Sliwa said. “The NFL is the NFL either way. But the brand that the Rams created in a short space of time and… the looks. You go to a game and it’s like, ‘Wow, there’s LeBron; there’s DiCaprio; there is the.’ Heck, what more could you ask for from this franchise?”
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