why does the nfl not play on saturday
Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 The law has been interpreted to include the so-called "blackout rules" which protect a home team from competing games broadcast into its home territory on a day when it is playing a game at home, and from having to broadcast games within its home market area that have not sold out. It also, in effect, protects high school football and college football game attendance by blacking out pro football games locally on Friday evenings and Saturdays during those sports' regular seasons; these measures effectively outlawed the broadcasting (and, in practice, the playing) of NFL games on those days, since virtually all of the country is within 75 miles of at least one high school game on every Friday night in September and October.