NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell delivered his annual state of the league address in Indianapolis on Friday. Goodell delivered plenty information that will be of interest to the St. Louis Rams and their fans. He even touched on London, Los Angeles, etc. He also said that every team in the league will be playing in prime time for the 2012 season, even the Rams.
That's being made possible by the decision to expand the Thursday night package to 13 games, starting in Week 2. Every team will get at least one Thursday night game.
The good news for non-Rams fans is that so few people get the NFL Network ... and that's what this issue is really about for the league. By making this announcement, the NFL is putting some pressure, lots of pressure, on Time Warner and Cablevision, the two largest cable providers not currently offering NFL Network. More importantly, those two providers cover some of the biggest markets in the US, including much of the East Coast.
This also positions the league to sell the broadcasting rights for another prime time package of games, expected to be eight games. That could fetch the league around a billion dollars.