NFL commish announces Thursday Night Football expansion: 13 games will air on NFL Network next season

UPDATE, 11:55 a.m. MONDAY - From loyal JDTVB reader Michael Shockley comes this update via Facebook:

Minor correction: There will now be 17 Thursday games. NBC gets the Week 1 game as it has had, but the peacock now also gets the Thanksgiving prime-time game after CBS and FOX handle the day games. The NFL Network package now covers 13 Thursdays from Week 2 through Week 15, not including Thanksgiving. (The news about NBC adding Thanksgiving was announced in December, but it kind of flew under the radar as part of the story about the networks extending their deals with the NFL. The deal also specifies that NBC might be able to "flex" games starting earlier in the season, and allows for CBS to air some NFC games and FOX to air some AFC games.)

Thanks, Michael!

PREVIOUSLY:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced this afternoon that the league is expanding its Thursday Night Football schedule on NFL Network to 13 games for the 2012 season.

The move will allow all of the league's 32 teams to play at least once in prime time somewhere on the schedule.

"Adding these games to the NFL Network schedule will give more players, teams, and cities the prime time stage,” Goodell said during his annual Super Bowl press conference in Indianapolis.  "Our fans can now get an early start on the NFL weekend in the season’s first 15 weeks."

By expanding the Thursday schedule, the league will now play a total of 16 Thursday games next season, including the season opener (which will air on NBC) and, of course, the traditional Thanksgiving Day games (on CBS and Fox).

What remains to be seen, however, is whether or not Time Warner Cable (which will more than likely take over Insight Communications before the new season begins) and the league can at long last settle their dispute that has kept NFL Network away from the cable giant's customers here and elsewhere since 2006.