Can you believe this?

I was looking over the Cowboys schedule the other day, and I think they're "maxed out" on prime time games per NFL broadcast rules. They have five of them, counting this week's game. Even after going 4-12 last season they still have five national "prime time" games.

This week: vs Bears (Sunday Night)
Oct. 30th: vs Eagles (Sunday Night)
Dec. 1st: @ Vikings (Thursday Night)
Dec 11th: @ Giants (Sunday Night)
Dec 26th: vs Lions (Monday Night)

No surprise at all. The Cowboys have been maxing out on prime time games since the 1970s at least. The CBS mantra when trying to decide which game to show in markets that didn't have a team of its own was "when in doubt, give 'em Dallas".

Love them or hate them, people want to watch them to either see them win or to see them lose. People can't help being interested in the Cowboys, no matter what. They are as compulsively watchable as the Yankees in baseball, or the Celtics in basketball. Or Notre Dame in the colleges...

Yeah, I know it's weird, but seeing that many evening/prime time games made me smile. It still holds true: "When in doubt, give 'em Dallas".