In the end, I felt that this was the only option that the NFL could do. http://espn.go.com/nfl/columns/pasquarelli_len/1258892.html
Though whole thing seems rather silly to me. Couldn' the NFL had simply had the Superbowl 1 week after the conference championships while taking out the extra week of pre-Superbowl drool common to recent Superbowls. There hasn't always been 2 weeks between the games. I guess the NFL figured the 2 weeks of hype was worth paying off the NADA people for.
I thought that was the problem, that the super bowl was already only one week after the conference championships. I wouldn't swear to it but that my impression at least...
It is...the SuperBowl was already scheduled to be played the week after the Conference Championship games. If they had started the season during Labor Day weekend then I think there would have been that extra week. It seems that the NFL just recently went to that type of schedule, i.e. starting the season one year on Labor Day weekend and then starting the next season the weekend after Labor Day weekend.
The Superbowl was already scheduled to be one week after the conference games. The problem wasn't getting an extra week for hype, the problem was with the terrorist attacks, and consequently one week was canceled, the playoffs would start a week later, and the Superbowl and car shows coincided with each other. This way they don't have to cancel the first round of the playoffs.