• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

For the NFL, sometimes there can be too much of good thing.

In its current state of renegotiation with TV networks and streaming, it is looking to carefully find a way to spread the wealth to wildly interested TV and streaming platforms. But the main issue is not to make it difficult for the viewers.

It seems “Monday Night Football” was getting to be a little too much for viewers -- especially when it came to doubleheaders.

According to Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution for the NFL, viewers were conflicted over which games to watch outside the more traditional Sunday afternoon/evening time slots.

So the NFL is pulling back five games that air on Walt Disney’s ABC and ESPN around those doubleheaders. It will look to schedule them at other times and sell them to other platforms -- most likely digital-first streaming platforms.

What is the new focus? After its two seasons of Christmas Day game on Netflix, it is looking explore a game on ‘Thanksgiving Eve’ -- the day before the major holiday. Next year there will be another Christmas triple-header: Two on Netflix and one on Fox.

So, in effect, with adding a "Thanksgiving Eve" game, the NFL now seems to be toying with expanding to... Wednesdays?

Among other things, we wonder if the players union will consider the idea of another weekday date, meaning one less day of recovery or preparation from a previous game. For a number of years, players complained about playing on Thursday nights -- now a staple on the NFL schedule.

It seems the league is trying to juggle a number of interests -- viewers, players, owners, and TV networks/streamers.

It may be difficult to argue with the NFL’s TV and streaming plan. For the last few years, regular-season games continued to show slowly rising viewership, as well as its high-valued post season.

All this comes as the NFL is also carefully pursuing more international interests -- with teams traveling to a number of different countries.

Demand from TV networks and streamers remains very high -- in a growing ecosystem focused around sports.

It’s all about playing ball... with the NFL.