Historically the entire playoffs were all national games available everywhere with at most an ESPN cable pay wall. Everyone has been trained that regular season games out of market might or might not be available. Years ago when Monday night moved from ABC to ESPN there was an uproar because it had been a mainstay national slot for free tv.
As others mentioned, this was a playoff game. However I think your larger point is in some way right. They are very connected and can be seen on a continuum. In the before times, certain games were “national” games. Meaning everyone got to watch. Regardless of what market you were in, or what services you paid for. As long as you had TV (I.e. the networks) you could see them. This was MNF and the playoffs.
This has slowly changed with more and more of the national games being behind a paywall. TNF being on prime was a major acceleration of this trend, one that continues with actual playoff games being on a streaming service. Like most slipper slopes it’s hard to pick the exact moment it all changed, but I agree with your implied point: TNF and the Peacock Playoff game are both examples of the NFL and their enablers squeezing more money out of the fans. (Which I’m mostly OK with even if driven by a gross ethos)
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