why are there two nfl games tonight

There are two NFL games tonight because it is one of the Mondays designated for a "Monday Night Football" doubleheader in the 2025 NFL season. This means two games are scheduled to be played and broadcast on Monday night, one starting earlier followed by a second game beginning about an hour later. The 2025 NFL season features four such Monday Night Football doubleheaders, where ESPN and ABC split the broadcast rights to show two games on the same evening. This practice started in 2006 with the idea of having one game on the East Coast and another on the West Coast, and has been expanded recently to include overlapping game times as part of a 10-year broadcast deal that began in 2023, increasing the total number of MNF games and allowing for multiple games on some Monday nights.