First of all, I hope everyone had a great holiday and and happy new year. 

If you've seen the news, and Wes alluded to it in his morning round up, Mark Cuban has put the NFL on blast for scheduling the Cowboys v. Eagles game on Saturday night directly against the Mavericks home game against the Jazz.   As Cubes put its, "I know we're [small potatoes] compared to the NFL, but seriously, the NFL is turning into the ugly American when it comes to sports leagues," Cuban said before Tuesday's game against Detroit. "They don't [care] about anybody but themselves. There's not much I can do, obviously, in terms of the schedule."

Does the NFL owe it to other sports to schedule around them, or as the dominant sport on the landscape, do other sports have to grin and bear it when the NFL strolls in and takes the comfy seat?   More importantly, in a city like Dallas where it's the Cowboys first and everyone else next, does the NFL have a responsibility to not "steal fans" from attending other sporting events in the city?

I guess I could argue both points here, and that's why I'm putting out to you MMB readers.

On one hand, Mark Cuban has a point.  The Mavs had a game scheduled here since well before the NFL playoff schedules, let alone teams, were announced.  Based on seeding, the other game on Saturday is the Jets and Bengals.  Is the argument that those are both East Coast teams so they get the early start?  The NFL, as powerful as they are, should have the ability to bend schedules as they see fit.  The NY market isn't going to cry over spilled milk on a Saturday night late game.   Cuban has a right to point out that in this city his team is always second banana to the Cowboys, and this is just Jerry and the NFL slapping him down when the Mavs are having a great season.

Not the world's strongest points, but still valid.

On the other hand, the NFL can argue that it is "collared" by television contracts.  So, NBC is at fault.  As well, they could throw the idea of capitalism back at Mark Cuban and simply say, they're giving the consumer a choice and if they choose the NFL over the NBA, so be it.  The NFL is the king of the mountain when it comes to sports right now, so if their product being put against everyone else blows away the competition, so be it.   They don't owe it to any other sports to cater to their schedules, so if it happens that two teams in the same market play on the same night, maybe Cuban should reach out to Jerry and vise versa to update/show game updates on each other's uber-HD-o-trons.

Again, not the world's strongest points, but all valid to a degree.

I really could care less given that with the miracle of DVR, I can record both game and watch at my leisure (yeah, that's right, look at me, I have a DVR, be jealous.)   But I can see both points of view.

Who's in the wrong (if anyone)?  Cuban or the NFL?