Potential Jalen Hurts Absence Could Make Patriots-Chiefs Flex Disaster For NFL

The New England Patriots will host the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The NFL made that decision when it flexed Patriots-Chiefs from ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” to Sunday’s slate in favor of the NFC matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks.

At the time, those around New England took it to be a slight at the now the 3-10 Patriots. Bill Belichick’s team is such a bad product the league went as far as to remove Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift storyline from the national window. It was the first time a Monday night game was flexed.

Well, it seems possible the league could regret that decision.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday morning Eagles starting quarterback Jalen Hurts was downgraded to questionable due to illness. With Seahawks starting quarterback Geno Smith already questionable, there’s a real chance the ESPN primetime product features Philadelphia backup Marcus Mariota against Seattle second-stringer Drew Lock.

That certainly would not capture the same national attention as a fully healthy Eagles-Seahawks tilt. Maybe it wouldn’t even capture the same attention as Patriots-Chiefs, Mahomes, Swift, etc.

Right around the same time as Schefter’s report, internet rumors picked up that Swift was flying into the New England area and would be in attendance at Gillette Stadium. While the league might have seen that one coming — Swift has traveled to a handful of Kelce’s games, after all — the pop star’s appearance combined with quarterback injuries could make for a primetime disaster.

Patriots-Chiefs will kick off at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.