The kickoff time for Sunday late-afternoon doubleheader games on CBS and Fox will be moved from 3:15 p.m. to 3:25 p.m. (Central), a decision that impacts two Green Bay Packers games.
The Packers’ opening game against the San Francisco 49ers and their Week 4 game against the New Orleans Saints — both home games that will air on Fox — will be moved back 10 minutes to 3:25 p.m. kickoffs.
According to the NFL, “The (3:25 p.m.) kickoff time will reduce instances in which fans miss the end of a noon game telecast because they must receive the opening kickoff of their home team’s late-afternoon game. In addition, fans not in the cities of the late doubleheader opponents will be less likely to miss the beginning of the late doubleheader game.
“In researching the kickoff time shift, the NFL analyzed games from the 2009-11 seasons and found that 44 games required part of the audience to be switched to a mandatory doubleheader game kickoff. With a (3:25 p.m.) kickoff time, that number that would have been reduced by 66 percent to only 15 games.
The decision impacts about 40 games, according to the league.
The 3:05 p.m. kickoff time for games not on the doubleheader network will remain unchanged. The Packers don’t have any of those games on the schedule.
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Bill Huber is publisher of Packer Report magazine and PackerReport.com and has written for Packer Report since 1997. E-mail him at packwriter2002@yahoo.com, or leave him a question in Packer Report’s subscribers-only Packers Pro Club forum. Find Bill on Twitter at twitter.com/PackerReport.