Bengals Could Get Flexed Out Of Sunday Night Football On Week 16

On December 26 -- that's the day after Christmas mommy -- the Bengals will host the San Diego Chargers on Week 16 during Sunday Night Football. That's right. Al Michaels, former Cincinnati Reds radio guy, and Cris Collinsworth, former Bengals wide receiver, will call the game as the entire world watched the Cincinnati Bengals wreck the San Diego Chargers in this year's campaign of "Wreck Your Team."

Well, more than likely right?

No. Not likely.

In 2006, the NFL began scheduling primetime games on NBC's Sunday Night Football to give the best matchups possible that usually have playoff implications. They only flexed the schedule during week 10-15 and week 17 until recently where all games after week 11 had a chance to be flexed. Even if Cincinnati wins their next two games, they'll only be 4-10 playing against a San Diego Chargers team that's currently in third place behind the Chiefs and Raiders (by way of a tie-breaker).

On the other hand, there's really no match ups that could be worth flexing. It's unlikely that FOX will let NBC take Giants and Packers and it's very unlikely CBS will give up the Jets at Bears. That leaves:

Lions at Dolphins
Ravens at Browns
Vikings at Eagles
Patriots at Bills
Seahawks at Buccaneers
Redskins at Jaguars
Titans at Chiefs
49ers at Rams
Colts at Raiders
Texans at Broncos

It's possible that the Seahawks at Buccaneers and Colts at Raiders have the greatest playoff implications for both teams with a stretch going to 49ers at Rams. Otherwise, the league may elect not to flex any of the games and choose to go with the Chargers and Bengals, who have some star power with our reality TV boys.