With the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys both struggling this year, their Week 14 matchup would seem like a strong candidate to get flexed out of Monday night, but that definitely won't be happening.
Although the Bengals became the first team in NFL history to get flexed out of a Thursday game, they don't have to worry about their Monday night game against the Cowboys getting moved.
The NFL is allowed to flex any Monday night game between Weeks 12 and 17, but the league won't be flexing that Dec. 9 game for one reason: ESPN and Disney will be airing an alternate broadcast of the Bengals-Cowboys game the revolves around "The Simpsons."
The broadcast will be called "The Simpsons Funday Football" and will feature Bart teaming up with the Bengals and Homer teaming up with the Cowboys. The voice overs and animation for the game have already started, so at this point, it would be impossible to flex any other teams into that Monday night spot.
ESPN actually released a preview for the game on Nov. 18 that gave everyone a small taste of what football is going to look like in the world of "The Simpsons."
Woo-hoo! The NFL is coming to Springfield! 🙌📺
— ESPN (@espn) November 18, 2024
@TheSimpsons Funday Football streams live Dec. 9 on @DisneyPlus and @ESPNPlus pic.twitter.com/9dCEARGLn7
Although the Cowboys and Bengals can't get flexed out of this game, they can be flexed out of other games and the Bengals learned that the hard way this week. Cincinnati was scheduled to have a Thursday night game against the Browns in Week 16, but that game was flexed out with Broncos vs. Chargers taking its place. It was the first time in NFL history that the league has flexed a Thursday game.
As for the Cowboys, they have a Sunday night game in Week 16 against the Buccaneers and it won't be surprising at all if that gets flexed. The NFL can flex a Sunday game with 12 days notice, so the league has until Dec. 10 to decide whether it wants to move that game.
