NFL pushes back some kickoff times

The NFL announced on Thursday that late games in the CBS and Fox doubleheader contests will start 10 minutes later, with kickoffs at 4:25 ET.

The reason for the change is to give views the opportunity to watch the end of the 1 p.m. ET games rather than be switched to the late game due to obligations to show the hometown team's game in it entirety.

Doubleheader games have traditionally started at 4:15 p.m. ET. Games that have a scheduled 4:05 ET kickoff will still begin at that time.

In researching the kickoff time shift, the NFL looked at games from the 2009-11 seasons and discovered that 44 games required a portion of the audience to be switched away from the 1 p.m. games in order to see the kickoff of their local team. With the change, it is estimated that only about 15 games would be affected as such.

Approximately 40 games over the full 2012 season will be impacted by the kickoff time shift – with half of those coming in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.

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Terry McCormick covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com