Overall, the Mike Tirico/Jon Gruden Monday Night Football has greatly improved since their first season 2009.  It’s now one of the top broadcasting teams in football, which is fine, but as the game is about more than the chemistry and knowledge of the announcers, Thus, MNF doesn’t need saving, but it needs desperate help, as it’s schedule is a frequent disappointment that too often puts on an unwatchable game no one wants to see, such as last night’s between the Chargers and Bears.  Oh, the game ended up being fairly entertaining, but how many people stayed up to watch it because it was between two two-win teams?  Long story short: ESPN needs a better schedule.  Not a schedule from back in the day — those days and game are long gone, moved to NBC.  But there has to be a better way.  Here is that way:

1.  This year saw ESPN get a slightly better MNF slate and after reading this Washington Post piece pondering if there was a way to flex MNF games, we got to thinking about it.  Mark Maske is right.  Flexing would be tough logistically.  Moving staff, flights, hotels, fan travel from Sunday to Monday isn’t easy.  He’s also right about the necessity:

There is a Nov. 30 Monday night game pairing the Baltimore Ravens, now 2-6, and the Cleveland Browns, who are currently 2-7.  That begins a four-week stretch of Monday night games through Dec. 21 that will feature just one team currently over .500 (the Giants). 

But how about this compromise: After every team has played half its season (so, right now), flex four games into the last four Monday Night Football spots of the year (Weeks 13-16 — there is no Week 17 MNF game).  Just do it on this Tuesday every year.  Change what games need to be changed and leave them that way.  If we agree that flexing over 12 days is too tough, surely 45 days could suffice.  I mean, if you schedule World Series and NBA Finals on the fly, why not football with more than a month?  How would this work? 

2.  Some fans would be put out but teams could implement a buy-back program for certain fans who were, say, traveling a long distance for a Sunday/Monday game that was switched or were bringing kids to a day game that turned into a game that ends closer to midnight — something that’s an issue with SNF flex anyway. 

3.  Now, you run the still risk of having a game that looks good after Week 9 becoming a dog by mid-December (Vikings-Jets looks like a good one right now, that could easily changed by Week 14), but there will be a far better success rate than making the same decisions in April.  There would be the obvious conflicts with the rest of the primetime and national schedules: Thursday nights, Sunday nights and Fox and CBS national games (this is what happens when you stretch yourself too thin, NFL — aka, this is why Thursday Night Football is horrible).  But a decent game is far better than a horrible game.  So here’s how I’d propose flexing into the final three MNF weeks this year (based on real schedule with the aforementioned concerns considered):

Week 13 : STAY — Cowboys at Redskins — A Cowboys-Redskins game from 2012 is the highest rated SNF game in history.  Last year’s Monday nighter, when the Redskins stunk, put together the highest MNF ratings in five years.  Translation: This game isn’t getting moved. 

Week 14: STAY — New York Giants at Miami Dolphins — The Dolphins are improved under Dan Campbell, but still not good.  The Giants lead the NFC East, a tenuous position that could be gone in six days.  But given New York’s current placement atop its division and the obvious allure of the New York market, you can’t pull this one. 

Week 15: FLEX — Dump Lions-Saints (shudders) for Arizona Cardinals at Philadelphia Eagles — This is a natural: The AZ/PHI game is a regional Fox broadcast in a week in which CBS has the national game.  It’d replace an awful NFC game and could be a major showdown between two playoff contenders.  Philly already has five primetime games and I believe six is the maximum for any team given flexing. ( Please note I’m not 100% sure about this.  For the terabytes and billions of words written about the NFL on the Internet, all I could find about the maximum primetime rules was a mention on Pro Football Talk in which Mike Florio expresses the same opinion with the same doubt.) 

Week 16: STAY — Cincinnati Bengals at Denver Broncos — Not exactly a tough decision. 

3.  There it is: The dog midseason games (such as the one on Monday night) are unavoidable, but for the last four weeks of the year, we’d just have one game affected by our little plan and suddenly our MNF schedule in December has gained slightly in stature and importance for its final three weeks. 

4.  And you could still skip Monday Night Countdown with impunity.