Since 1990, there has been two games played on Saturday and two games played on Sunday during wild-card weekend in the NFL. Back then, there was three division winners and three wild-card teams competing in the playoffs. When the new CBA eventually gets signed, we will see an expanded playoff field which could mean a possible playoff game on Monday night.
Via CBS Sports:
According to Peter King of NBC Sports, the NFL is considering the possibility of moving at least one playoff game each year to Monday night. Under the current format, which has been in place since 1990, the option of playing on a Monday never really came up, because there were only four games during the wild-card round, which made it simple for the NFL from a scheduling standpoint. Over the past 30 years, the NFL has simply scheduled a doubleheader on both Saturday and Sunday.
Once the NFL expands the postseason to 14 teams, that will add two extra games to Wild-Card Weekend, which means there will be a total of six games during the opening round of the playoffs. According to King, the NFL is going to deal with this in one of two ways: The league is either going to hold a triple-header on both Saturday and Sunday OR the league will move to a 2-3-1 format, which would call for a doubleheader on Saturday, a triple-header on Sunday and a single game being played on Monday night.
At first, I thought the idea was crazy. No way would a wild-card game on Monday night be a good idea. But I continued to think about it and the more I did, the more I liked the idea.
Why not have a wild-card game Monday night just like you would have a normal Monday Night Football game? The added drama of it being in the playoffs, the game will be by itself in terms of other football games, and it will give fans an opportunity to still go out on Saturday night after the first two games (should they be played at 1pm and 4pm).
The CBA still needs to be signed before any of this can become a real discussion. The idea of having a playoff game on Monday night, however, seems like a brilliant idea and makes a ton of sense for the NFL.