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The Arizona Cardinals are once again moving to Sunday Night Football. In a move announced by the team, NBC has "flexed" the December 20 contest between the Cardinals and Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia to Sunday Night Football at 8:30 PM Eastern/6:30 PM Arizona time. The game originally was scheduled for 1 PM Eastern (11 AM Arizona time) and was to air on FOX.
It is the second Cardinals game this season that was flexed into Sunday Night Football after the Bengals home game in Week 11. This is the first time in team history that the Cardinals were flexed multiple times in a season.
This is the third time Arizona has been moved into the prime time game since "flexible scheduling" began in 2006. Prior to this season, the only other time Arizona was flexed into a Sunday Night game was in Week 13 of the 2009 season vs. Minnesota.
The Eagles game represents the Cardinals 24th Sunday Night appearance. It will be the Cardinals third SNF appearance in 2015, tying the franchise record for a single season (3 in 2009, including 1 "flexed" game).
This is the third time in franchise history the Cardinals will appear in a prime time games in consecutive weeks and two of those instances occurred this season. In 2009 the Cardinals played on SNF vs. Indy in Week 13 and on MNF at San Francisco in Week 14. Earlier this year the Cards played consecutive games on SNF at Seattle (Week 10) and vs. Cincinnati (Week 11).
It gives the Cardinals a franchise-record five prime time appearances in the 2015 regular season, all of which will occur in a span of eight games - Week 7 vs. Baltimore (MNF); Week 10 at Seattle (SNF); Week 11 vs. Cincinnati (SNF); Week 14 vs. Minnesota (TNF); Week 15 at Philadelphia (SNF). The Cardinals also played in a nationally-televised preseason game on NBC at Oakland on August 30.
The game in Philadelphia is the Cardinals' last on the road in the regular season. The one thing that could come into play is the weather. A 1 PM local start is approaching the warmest time of day. A night game will start when things start cooling off. As of right now, the forecast is that there will be afternoon/evening showers in Philly. The high that day is expected to be in the lower 50s. So no snow for now.
This is something new for those who have been fans of the team for years. With how the Cardinals have been playing, they might begin to attract a national following.