The Baltimore Ravens are in danger of kicking off their Super Bowl title defense on the road next season unless the NFL is able to work out scheduling conflict with Major League Baseball.
The NFL has a 10-year tradition of the reigning champion opening its regular season at home on Thursday night. However, the Baltimore Ravens have a scheduled home game on Thursday, Sept. 5, and the teams share a parking lot.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he has spoken with MLB counterpart Bud Selig twice in an effort to determine a solution – including a proposed double-header in which the Orioles’ game would start earlier in the day and the Ravens’ game would start later than normal.
“We think that’s the right thing,” Goodell said at the owners’ meetings in Phoenix on Tuesday. “We’ve agreed to move the game a little bit later in the evening to try to accommodate the baseball game. We think it’d be a great day.”
The 2012 NFL regular season began on a Wednesday night last year in order to avoid a conflict with the Democratic National Convention. However, Goodell said that isn’t an option this year with Sept. 4 being Rosh Hashanah.
“The only (other) option is to take the Ravens on the road,” said Goodell. “We think that’s wrong for the Ravens fans, so we wouldn’t want that to happen.”