What in the hell is the NFL Network?

I was watching the Cardnials/Vikings game last night on channel 1332 of my television, which is the NFL HD channel. That was because I had kept seeing "trailers" for the game which said, "Only on the NFL Network." The game was not running on 1008, which is CBS HD.

I was wondering why the Thursday night game is sometimes carried in CBS and sometimes not, last night it was not, and I suddenly realized I was listening to a CBS announcing crew and the CBS logo was on the screen along with the NFL Network logo. It was, in fact, a CBS production which was not being shown on CBS !!!!

I seem to recall watching a game on the NFL Network some time ago and they had their own announcers who, as I recall, were really obnoxious.

I'm sort of guessing that the NFL Network is so broke that it cannot afford the cost of producing the broadcast of a television game, and it has worked out some sort of convoluted deal with CBS. Does anyone know?