eventually flexed out), and the Falcons-Eagles NFC Divisional game. SNF had a rules analyst for the first time in program history, as the network added former referee Terry McAulay, who retired after the 2017 season. McAulay has worked three Super Bowls in his tenure as an NFL referee. Also that same year, McAulay worked the Notre Dame Football games for NBC, with FNIA studio host, Mike Tirico. 2019 The 2019 schedule was released on April 17. However, on March 25, the NFL announced that, in a break from tradition, the Kickoff Game would not be hosted by the reigning Super Bowl champions and would instead featured the Chicago Bears who hosted the Green Bay Packers at Soldier Field on September 5, with the game aired on NBC as part of a number of matchups throughout the league's 100th season celebrating critical games and rivalries through the league's history. The New England Patriots instead hosted the first SNF game of the season against Pittsburgh Steelers during Week 1 on NBC. For the tenth season in a row the NFL placed a game against a World Series game with the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs, going up against the fifth game of the Fall Classic between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros. Thanksgiving featured a rematch of the previous season's primetime Thanksgiving game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. It was the eighth time that the Thanksgiving game was part of the SNF package shown on NBC. For the second consecutive season, the FNIA team of Tirico, Dungy and Harrison were assigned to work the Thanksgiving primetime game Flexible scheduling rules went into effect in Week 5; the scheduled game reverted to the afternoon if a more compelling match-up arose as the season progressed. The previously scheduled Sunday Night game could be swapped with the more competitive game's time slot. This occurred several times during the season. On November 12, the Green Bay Packers versus San Francisco 49ers game was moved from 4:25pm ET on Fox to 8:20pm ET on NBC, replacing the originally scheduled Seattle Seahawks versus Philadelphia Eagles game. On December 2, the Buffalo Bills versus Pittsburgh Steelers game was moved from 1:00pm ET on CBS to 8:20pm ET on NBC, replacing the originally scheduled Minnesota Vikings versus Los Angeles Chargers game. On December 9, the NFL extended the deadline for flexing the