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NFL Moves 2012 Season Opener to Accommodate Obama's DNC Speech

NFL Moves 2012 Season Opener to Accommodate Obama's DNC Speech

This is not the first time the worlds of football and politics have collided.

For the second year running, the worlds of the NFL and politics collide.

The National Football League announced Tuesday that it will open the 2012 season on a Wednesday night instead of Thursday to avoid conflicting with President Obama's Democratic National Convention speech.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the kickoff game, to be hosted by the Super Bowl champion New York Giants, will be now be September 5 rather than September 6.

The L.A. Times adds:

Obama is scheduled to accept his party's nomination for a second term the following night in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium, home to the city's pro-football franchise the Carolina Panthers.

It will mark the second straight year that politics and football threatened to conflict, but last year it was Obama altering his schedule to accommodate the NFL.

The White House announced plans for a joint session address to Congress during prime time last September so Obama could discuss his new jobs plan. First, he had to change the date after Republicans complained he would be stepping on a planned GOP debate. Then he had to move the speech up an hour, just before prime time, to ensure that his remarks would be finished in time for kickoff of the 2011 season opener between the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints.

This move, however, is no small feat. Shifting the season opener to accommodate the president's speech ensures Obama will have the largest audience possible.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the collateral damage in this equation is Vice President Joe Biden's speech, which will now overshadowed.

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