Football season is upon us, and that means lots of games on FOX 11.

We’ve got several preseason games, including two this week:

* Tonight, the Eagles play the Colts at 7pm.

* Friday, the Cowboys debut their new stadium in a game against the Titans at 7pm.

Ah, Friday night. The Vikings also play Friday night. It appears that the game will not be shown in these parts. We can’t air the game because of the FOX committment. And, another local station told the Press-Gazette they inquired with the Vikings about the rights, but were denied because the Vikings didn’t want to upset the Packers.

Every year, we get lots of calls asking us to air a particular game. In general, it works like this during the regular season:

* We air every game we can. If we have a Packers post-game show, it’s not replacing a game that’s available to us.

* Just because FOX has games in both the noon and 3:15 pm slot doesn’t mean we can air two games every week. The networks (usually) alternate doubleheader weeks. Sometimes we can air two, sometimes we can’t. FOX usually has late games because of the west coast NFC games, but that doesn’t mean we can always air them. It’s not our choice – it’s network rules. The upshot here, the on-air promos don’t necessarily translate to games on air here.

* FOX assigns us the other games, based on regional interest. This means we usually get NFC North games. We can request a change, but the network doesn’t have to grant it.

And, of course, that brings us back to the Vikings.

The initial schedule from FOX has us airing six Vikings games this year:

- Sept. 13, at Cleveland Browns
- Oct. 11, at St. Louis Rams
- Nov. 1, at Green Bay Packers
- Nov. 15, Detroit Lions
- Nov. 29, Chicago Bears
- Dec. 6 at Arizona Cardinals

There’s another day when the Vikings are playing on FOX at the same time the Packers are playing on CBS. However, because the Packers are home, we cannot air another game at the same time.

There’s also a Week 17 Vikings game we might be able to air, but we’ll wait to see what the playoff implications are before requesting a particular game.

I hope that helps you understand some of the ins and outs of the NFL on FOX. If you have any questions, let me know.