Monday Night Football's comedy of errors

I love football. From August til January it fills up every single one of my weekends. College football games on Thursday nights and all day Saturday. NFL Sundays and then Monday Night Football after my night class. The problem though, is the way schedules work, or rather, television schedules. With college football regional coverage dominates and so we in Big(11)Ten country get to watch the same games every week. We rarely get to see west coast games or if they happen to be on it's usually on some obscure channel (case and point: USC/Stanford was on Foxsportsnet ohio last Saturday... hmm).
With the NFL, regional coverage also rules depending on what division the closest team is in. This means, in Cincinnati every Bengals game will be on (provided they sell enough tickets, or just give them away like usual) or the closest team otherwise. In most cases this means the Browns or Steelers games will be on CBS.
On Fox well, your choice most years is pretty much Dallas vs. whoever they're playing. This year, however, we also get to see every single Vikings Game. Gotta love the National Favre League. The main issue with this is that the games are scheduled a year in advance. This means that while the Sunday night game between the Colts and Patriots was a lock to be a great game and delivered, the majority of the country has no idea how good the Steelers/Bengals game was because it was played at 1 0' clock. Both games had huge playoff implications and yet one was played in prime time while the other was being played while most of the target audience was still nursing a hangover and trying to find out who has the best pizza deal this week.
This brings us to tonight's epic battle. My beloved Browns playing one of our rivals; the Baltimore thieves... I mean Ravens. How we received a prime time game I simply cannot figure out. See, these big time games are scheduled on a basis of the prior years results. It made sense for the Browns to have 5 prime time games last year. We were an "it" team. The analysts looked at our previous record, thought we'd be a trendy 2008 team and wanted to cash in on the moment. Had they actually watched the games they would've seen that, in reality, we were a team with a ton of holes that caught a lot of breaks. Of course, their plan backfired, we were garbage, and the nation got to watch us go down in flames. After the gigantic disappointment that was last year the Browns fired their coach and GM and then proceeded to slowly trade off high profile pieces. It was clear that this would be a rebuilding year. It's turned out to be much, much worse. This isn't a rebuilding year, it's a weekly train wreck. So who in the NFL offices decided, "You know what games I'd like to see? The Browns playing two rivals who are traditionally much better then them late in the season." Whoever it was better have been fired.
If this were to happen in the NBA or the MLB the league would simply flex a different game in so the country would get to watch the Yankees, or Kobe or Bron Bron but the physicality and preparation involved with football wouldn't allow this type of schedule switch in the NFL. Therefore we are left with a game that appears to be so lopsided that even ESPN couldn't figure out how to market for it. Has anyone else seen the MNF commercials for this week? The best thing they could say for the Browns is, "Could they play Monday Night Spoiler?" Wow. Spoiler is a word reserved for an unranked team shocking a top 25 team in a Coaches against Cancer preseason college basketball tournament, not a professional football team.
Sadly, it's pretty clear what is going to happen tonight. The Browns will look terrible, the Ravens defense will beat us up, and by the 3rd quarter Jaws and Gruden will be searching for things to talk about during the telecast (I'm guessing we get an endless barrage of arguments discussing whether or not Belichick was right or wrong last night.) The only difference this week is that the Browns will suck on national television. I'm guessing though, it won't be too embarrassing, seeing as how only 15 people outside of Baltimore and Cleveland will be watching this game.
The good thing about being a Browns fan though is our blind faith and endless love for our team. Therefore, I, like every other Clevelander will sport my bright orange Kiedrowski's Bakery shirt with the Brownie on the back, drink way too much and belligerently yell "Here we go Brownie's Here we Go!" at the TV until my face is read. I'll pray for win, hope for a great game, or at the very least a good game by Brady but I can promise that, at the very least, We'll enjoy watching the game. As for the rest of America, I apologize. You deserve better.