Roger Goodell announced on Friday that the NFL's Thursday night football schedule is going to expand in 2012. Typically NFL Network only broadcasts Thursday night games later in the season, but this year a total of 13 games will be shown on NFL Network. This change means that there will be Thursday night games from Week 1 to Week 15 (the Week 1 and Week 12 games will be on NBC).
This change also means that every team in the NFL is guaranteed to have a primetime game next season.
Goodell said NFL Network will expand to 13 Thursday night games for the 2012 season, and he added that with the increased number of prime time games, all 32 NFL teams will be guaranteed at least one prime time game over the course of the 2012 season.
The Lions will play on national TV on Thanksgiving like always, and chances are they will have a few additional primetime games. In 2011, the Lions played on Monday Night Football and also played on NBC's Sunday Night Football later in the season. With all of the playmakers on the team and the promise surrounding the franchise, I'd expect at least three or four primetime games for the Lions in 2012. How many are you expecting?