The 2022 World Cup Final proved to be one of the greatest soccer matches of all-time, and yet many wondered what would have happened if the match overran into the 1:00 PM ET window for the NFL on FOX. 94WIP morning host Angelo Cataldi said the network should thank their lucky stars the match ended when it did.
“Here’s the thing. While I’m watching this, and I’m going ‘What happens if this World Cup game goes past 1:00 PM?’,” Cataldi said.
“Chaos,” replied co-host Rhea Hughes.
“For sure, because FOX has got both the World Cup and the NFL,” Catladi said. “Secondly, they paid a ton of money for both. Third, the World Cup is getting the best numbers they’ve ever got in their history in America. The NFL is their bread and butter. What do you do at 1:00 PM? They don’t know how long the penalty kicks are going to take. It could be 20 kicks, who knows?”
When told they could have moved the penalty kicks of the World Cup to FS1, Cataldi scoffed at the idea.
“Big mistake. FS1 has about a third of the people. It is not widely distributed. You’re gonna take two-thirds of an audience that watched the greatest World Cup game ever and send them somewhere else where they may not be able to go to see the end of that event?”
Hughes then asked if they would send the NFL to FS1.
“No, not a chance,” countered Cataldi. “Then I started to wonder about the world. This was a big thought. The truth is, if you missed the first five plays of the Eagles game, would the Eagle fans have gone bezerk if FOX said ‘we’re just gonna get through the penalty kicks and see who wins’? They would have went nuts, right? So you’re gonna lose no matter what! They made it by minutes!”
Co-host Al Morganti told Cataldi that it was eight minutes between the end of the World Cup Final and the beginning of the 1:00 PM window. Cataldi concluded he would have complained but joked he didn’t have to watch the “forced laughter” between Terry Bradshaw and Michael Strahan.
“Now I want a soccer game at 11:00 AM every Sunday,” the venerable host joked.
