DeAngelo Williams Takes Exception to Being Flexed out of Primetime

It wasn’t a snoozer by any stretch, but most neutral fans probably didn’t have much reason to tune into last week’s Monday Night Football encounter between the 5-7 Miami Dolphins and 5-7 New York Giants.

However, the outcome of the game influenced the primetime slot held by the upcoming Steelers-Ravens game, and Pittsburgh running back DeAngelo Williams was none too pleased with the result.

Had Miami won, the Steelers and Ravens would have ended their season series on Sunday night in week 16. Because the Giants won, that game has been pushed to a 1pm EST slot, and has been replaced with Giants-Vikings.

“If you’re gonna [sic] flex us out of SNF because the Ravens are bad you can’t flex in the Vikings vs. Giants (who’ll prob be 6-8) that just makes no sense,” Williams ranted on Twitter, before ending with the hashtag, “#heyitsyourratingswedontcare.”

It might be a little convoluted to go viral, but Williams’ complaints are understandable. When the Steelers and Ravens first met in week 4, Pittsburgh had no choice but to start Mike Vick on a short week against a hungry Baltimore.

The understrength Steelers pushed their rivals to the limit before succumbing to an overtime defeat. Two months later, and it’s the Ravens who are plagued with the injury bug, rendering them the Ravens-in-name-only.

The final straw may have been Joe Flacco’s ACL injury a few weeks ago. As long as both Flacco and Roethlisberger were healthy, it’s hard to see this game getting snubbed. But without their starting quarterback, nobody expects Baltimore to put up nearly as much of a fight as their enemy did, hence the shift out of primetime.

As for Williams, his Twitter poll following the news has shockingly failed to convince the executives at NBC. 76% of respondents voted in favour of keeping Steelers-Ravens in primetime. The number of Steelers fans among the 3,689 voters has yet to be disclosed.