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Five Interesting 2017 Chicago Bears Schedule Facts

By Bill Zimmerman

Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports /
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3. The Bears nationally televised games are all against division rivals.

Dec 18, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Christine Michael (32) runs past Chicago Bears cornerback Cre’von LeBlanc (22) during the second half at Soldier Field. Green Bay won 30-27. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 18, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Green Bay Packers running back Christine Michael (32) runs past Chicago Bears cornerback Cre’von LeBlanc (22) during the second half at Soldier Field. Green Bay won 30-27. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports /

The Bears are on national television three times this season. They have a Thursday night match-up against the Green Bay Packers, a Monday night match-up against the Minnesota Vikings and a Saturday afternoon game (in December) against the Detroit Lions- all NFC North opponents.

The reasoning for this? The NFL is trying to cash in on rivalry games. Let’s face it, the Bears are bad and don’t deserve to be on national television at all. However, they are the Chicago Bears, the founding franchise of the NFL, as well as the third largest market in the country.

The NFL wants to cash in on that, but putting a bad team on national television is dangerous. To combat that, the league puts the Bears on tv against their rivalries in hopes that the games are close. Putting the Bears against the Pittsburgh Steelers in primetime could result in a blowout and everyone tuning out at halftime, while there’s a chance that could happen against a team like the Packers, the NFL will hope that game stays within a touchdown for most of the game since it’s one of the league’s biggest rivals.

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