Pat McAfee said Sunday he believes the NFL needs better flex scheduling to weed out some of the “crahp” late-season football games involving non-contenders.

McAfee also must still believe in Santa, because he framed his criticism in the form of a request to “that fat man.”

On NFL GameDay Morning, McAfee ran down his “Pat’s Special Christmas List.” No. 2 on his list: “Weekly Slate/Schedule Management.”

“Number two for my special Christmas wish list, I want that fat man to go over to NFL and say ‘Hey, we need better weekly slates and schedule management,’” McAfee said. “Listen, I know it’s not easy, 32 teams, you never know when injuries are going to hit, you never know what teams are going to be good.

“But whenever we stare down the primetime schedule in the middle of the season and there’s five straight primetime games with some New York team, and some Dallas team, and inevitably we think they’re going to be good. … What happens is these networks get scared to flex these games, so we end up with ‘crahp’ games … ‘crahp’ games … ‘crahp’ games. These people need to know that every single week, we are living and dying by their decisions.

McAfee said he’s thankful for NFL RedZone.

“And to be clear, the football god that I pray to is Scott Hanson, on the NFL RedZone,” McAfee said. “Whenever they load up one of the time slots on Sunday, and the other one is ‘crahp,’ I’m like, can we not maybe make a little bit of an adjustment here? I think we need to talk a little bit about the weekly slate.”

GameDay host Rich Eisen joked he had a request for Hanson.

“I tell you this though, Pat, I would pay money to hear on the RedZone, to have Scott Hanson declare something ‘The Crahping Hour.’ I would pay for that,” Eisen said.

McAfee fired back with a crack about Hanson using his familiar “commercial-free” catchphrase last week on RedZone when the show was running “test” ads.

I know it’s not easy but we need better weekly slates and schedule management in the NFL..

We can’t be scared to flex some of these CRAHP football games @NFLGameDay pic.twitter.com/qsZHisyzKo

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 22, 2024

Flex games happen, although probably not often enough to satisfy many fans (or McAfee, evidently). Prime Video’s game this week between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers was a flex. CBS flexed Sunday’s Buffalo Bills-New England Patriots game into its national window this week. And the Atlanta Falcons-Washington Commanders game in Week 17 has been flexed to Sunday Night Football.

However, there are often certain issues that prevent a game from being flexed. For example, the NFL opted not to flex the Week 14 Dallas Cowboys-Cincinnati Bengals game out of Monday Night Football because of The Simpsons altcast.

McAfee’s request to Santa for better flexing is a noble one. Hopefully someone at the North Pole — or NFL headquarters — is listening.

[Pat McAfee]