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While the Eagles organization has certainly been painting this as quite and honor and exciting event, I've noticed that it's been met with some mixed reaction among fans. I was checking out the Eagles Fancast show and the boys mentioned that their spouses were less than happy about the idea of a football game taking over Thanksgiving. I imagine that little debate will be one that rages on in many Eagles households...
Eagles president Joe Banner doesn't think that will be a problem.
The other problem is the pissing match between the NFL and major cable providers over the NFL network. The Thanksgiving night game was specifically devised by the NFL as a way to pump up their new network. Currently Comcast carries the NFL network only as part of a sports tier that costs an extra $5 a month. However, if the game is a sellout(which it will be) the NFL will allow it to be shown locally on free TV. So people in the Philly area will get to see the games regardless, but fans outside of the reach of local Philly TV will have to have NFL network to catch the game.
So what are your thoughts? Personally, I've said this before, I dislike primetime games. I know it's an ego stroke for the team and players and it means the league/networks think you're a good team that people want to see... but I just like football on Sunday. I like turning the game on at one and being part of the action that is a full slate of NFL games. I like watching Chris Berman do the highlights at the end of the day. But that's just me... and despite that I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving game.