Week 14 features a Monday Night Football matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams that is curious at best, god-awful at worst. I can sort of get the reason for scheduling this game. While they were both 7-9, they did battle to the wire for the NFC West title last year. It was not pretty, but these were the two "best" teams in the NFC West in 2010.
At the same time, I sort of feel like this is the NFL basically giving the a big middle finger to the the other sports' leagues, as well as just about any other Monday programming. While other leagues can do well at times in the ratings and in overall popularity, the NFL is probably the most popular sports league going right now in America. The league is coming closer and closer to being a year-round entity. Aside from some slow times in May and late June, early July, the league is turning into 365 days of news.
So, why not roll out this matchup as a way to further prove how much better the league is than anybody else? "We'll roll out this slop just to show we can STILL get decent ratings." I'm curious to see what kind of ratings this game manages to get.
It actually is a fairly huge matchup for the Seahawks. If the Seahawks win, they will join the Arizona Cardinals at two games back of the Atlanta Falcons and Detroit Lions in the wildcard race. They would still have to get past the Giants, Cowboys and Bears who are all a game back in the wildcard, but crazier things have happened. Seattle and Arizona meet up in the regular season finale, so realistically only one would make it into the playoffs.
I have to say it'd be pretty cool if that Cardinals-Seahawks finale turned into a win and your in game. The NFC West has been dumped on a lot in recent years, so getting a second team into the playoffs would be kind of cool. The odds are slim, but it would be cool nonetheless.