One good turn deserves another when the country’s most powerful man has a scheduling conflict with the country’s most popular sport.

 

This week, the National Football League announced it will open its 2012 season on Wednesday night, September 5, instead of the following evening as originally planned. The reason: President Barack Obama is expected to give his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on September 6, and the NFL didn’t want its first game competing with viewers tuning in to see the speech.

 

Obama is scheduled to speak in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers franchise.

 

The scheduling change comes after Obama decided last September to move the time of his address about jobs before a joint session of Congress so he wouldn’t be speaking during the 2011 NFL opener.

 

For the record, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who announced the decision to reschedule this year’s opening game, did make a presidential campaign donation in 2008: he gave $2,500 to Obama’s opponent, John McCain.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

NFL Moves 2012 Season Opener To Avoid Conflict With Obama Speech (by Michael Memoli, Los Angeles Times)