TVSquad

If there's one night of television that NBC has a handle on, it's Sunday. At least during football season. Football Night In America works, and you know the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." That said, NBC has renewed its NFL deal for two more years. The new deal – the extension – secures that NBC will be broadcasting NFL games through 2013, so there will be plenty of games for all those analysts to yap about.

NBC has nearly enough guys to field a team on the pre-game show: Bob Costas, Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Tony Dungy, Tiki Barber, Rodney Harrison ... with Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth calling the games. Will we notice that John Madden is gone? Probably not, especially if the games are good.

Overall, NBC's coverage is a bit over the top, but generally pretty good. And in addition to securing two more years, NBC's 17-game Sunday Night Football schedule will be available on NBC Sports and streamed live on NBCSports.com and NFL.com.

If there's one true advantage that the NFL gives to NBC's coverage, though, it's the flexible schedule. In short, that means the NFL can arrange to have the most competitive, playoff important match-ups to the Sunday night slot. CBS and Fox may gripe about it, but as much as it's a plus for NBC, the real winner is the average football fan, the one who can't afford the DirecTV Sunday Ticket or gets the NFL Network on the cable system.