In !cfb@fanaticus.social, we'd use a thread like this one, and do a parent comment for each game. It's not followed perfectly, but no biggie. It works kinda like this:
For the NFL it would likely work a little better if people just post a thread for the game(s) they want to talk about. Even with the limited interest on Lemmy, CFB can get a little chaotic. Until and unless posting volume gets crazy though, it does also work a bit like a RedZone thread.
The biggest issue is that the overlap of people who prefer to post on lemmy and people who want to post about American football in real time is pretty small. :-)