National Sports Journalism Center

"With the release of its schedule on Tuesday, the NFL told Major League Baseball to … well, I can’t exactly say what," Tom Jones writes, adding, "Put it this way, the NFL kicked sand in baseball’s face by scheduling a marquee game at the same time as a potential World Series game. Baseball, obviously, hasn’t set a schedule yet for the World Series, but there’s a decent chance that a World Series game will be played on Sunday, Oct. 31. If there is, the World Series will go up against a nationally-televised Sunday Night Football game between the defending-champion Saints and the high-profile Steelers. In years past, the NFL has not scheduled games against the World Series. . . .This is a lousy thing for the NFL to do. Just because it can be a bully doesn’t mean it has to be a bully. So while the NFL proves it is mightier than the World Series (and, it will — watch, the Saints-Steelers game will get better TV ratings if it goes against a World Series game), the American sports fan is the one hurt here as he has to chose which game to watch in full."