The December 9 Monday Night Football matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys looked very appealing when the schedule was released months before the season kicked off. A late-season prime time matchup between two prolific quarterbacks on teams expected to be competing for the playoffs is a recipe that rarely fails the NFL.

Of course, once the games started to be played, it quickly became clear December 9 would not bring a prestige game. The Cowboys and Bengals proved to be flawed, underwhelming teams from the outset of the season. Now, three weeks before the game, Dallas is missing Dak Prescott and Cincinnati is nearly out of the playoff picture.

The NFL has a mechanism for when prime time games aren’t as important as they’re supposed to be late in the year. Networks like ESPN can work with the league to “flex” the game out of the time slot and replace it with a more enticing contest. Thus, after the Bengals lost to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday evening to fall to 4-7, many expected Bengals-Cowboys to be flexed out and replaced by a more competitive matchup.

And normally, it would be! But on Monday it was revealed the game can’t be flexed out for a truly hilarious and unexpected reason: The Simpsons.

ESPN and Disney have been planning a Simpsons alternate cast for the December 9 Monday Night Football game and apparently it is standing in the way of the game being replaced.

“For those asking, the Bengals-Cowboys MNF game is not eligible to be flexed out because of all the drawings, voiceovers and other work that has been done for The Simpsons alt-cast that will air that night,” reports Bengals beat writer Jay Morrison of BengalsTalk.com.

Who would have guessed that Homer Simpson would be the reason millions would be subjected to a subpar football game instead of one with stakes and quality play?

What a world.