Football fans have longed for the day after the Super Bowl to be declared a national holiday, and Christian Fauria believes that the way the NFL can achieve this goal for fans is to have the big game played on President’s Day weekend.
President’s Day is a federal holiday. Most adults end up getting that Monday off from work. Kids are typically off from school.
On Gresh & Fauria on WEEI, Fauria said it made the most logical sense in his mind for the NFL to push the Super Bowl back a week.
“This is the perfect opportunity for the NFL to push back the season where they can have the Super Bowl on a Sunday, and then have the next day off,” Fauria said Tuesday. “I feel like that’s coming in some way, shape or form. They’re not gonna go backward in the calendar they’re gonna go further, and I do think eventually they will add a game. So eventually the Super Bowl will be played on the day before President’s Day, and they will call it Super Bowl Monday.”
“Benefitting from a holiday is one thing I think the league will want,” Fauria added.
Co-host Andy Gresh hit back at Fauria with a dose of reality, pointing to the fact that the Sunday before President’s Day is NASCAR’s day to shine on FOX with the Daytona 500.
“It will never, ever happen,” Gresh said, pointing to the fact that the biggest chunk of revenue for the NFL comes from its TV deals. “Where does the biggest chunk of money for the NFL come from? “So here’s what you want to do. You want to go to FOX and say you know what FOX, we’ve had a great relationship for all these years, and I know you’re in business with NASCAR and you got that Daytona 500 – but we’re the NFL. So what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna tell you FOX, who pays us an inordinate amount of money, we’re gonna tell you that you’re gonna have to pay for our product. And oh by the way, you go tell the NASCAR people that we’re moving our game. You go figure all that out.”
“The television schedule will not allow for it,” Gresh added.
Gresh continued that the NFL has the Super Bowl built into the schedule to have the game played the weekend before, and networks and other leagues plan around it.
“It is locked in to the weekend before President’s Day because the NFL can’t push back on this,” Gresh said. “They can’t say pay more money for one game than any other and then be like you know what screw you we don’t care about the rest of your television schedule. You networks you’re gonna bow to us.”
Fauria responded by saying the NFL ultimately dictates how the rest of the sports world operates.
“I think you underestimate the NFL and their power and their willingness to take over the world,” Fauria said.
