As I sit here watching Chiefs-Raiders, one of the few good Thursday night games (excluding season openers and Thanksgiving) in recent years, I'm also thinking about that story Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio broke last week that the NFL is thinking about making some changes to the weekly package. The NFL has denied this, but Thursday Night Football is reportedly going to end, or at least be scaled back, after next season. Translation: they've gotten the message and realized that everyone hates Thursday Night Football.
When they started it, Thursday Night Football wasn't a bad idea. The NFL plays on Thanksgiving every year, and they've done a package of late-season Thursday night games in the past. And the creation of this current incarnation of Thursday Night Football was really a ploy to get cable companies to carry the NFL Network. Which worked. But the novelty has worn off, especially now that the games are also shown on CBS and NBC (and Twitter). Does anyone even watch the Thursday night game on NFL Network?
The season opener on Thursday night (hosted by the Super Bowl champion) and the third game on Thanksgiving (which gives a team other than Detroit or Dallas the opportunity to host a Thanksgiving game) aren't in jeopardy. And they shouldn't be. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about the confusing, co-branded "Color Rush" crap that we're subjected to every week.
Among the many, many problems with Thursday Night Football is that it's become way too gimmicky. It's where the NFL experiments with new ideas. Want to try streaming games online? Let's do it on Thursday night! Ugly monochrome uniforms that teams wear once and serve no purpose other than to blind people? Thursday night!
One of the things that they played up when Thursday Night Football was expanded to midseason was that it would be a 16-game package, so every team would appear once. It did seem like a fair thing to give teams like Cleveland and Jacksonville and Buffalo (teams that are never getting picked for Sunday or Monday night) the opportunity to play at least one primetime game. Except that requirement is exactly why we've ended up with our annual Jaguars-Titans Thursday night matchup, among other high-quality showdowns that would otherwise be the No. 5 regional game at 1:00 on Sunday afternoon but football fans are now being subjected to in primetime.
If it was just fans being unhappy with the terrible matchups between bad teams, that would be one thing. But you've gotta think the players' hatred of Thursday Night Football is really what's driving this bus. The players have been vocal in their opposition of playing on Thursday nights from the start, and you can easily understand why.
It's also more than a bit oxymoronic that the NFL is all about "player safety," yet the owners keep talking about an 18-game schedule. Just like it was the owners that pushed through the idea of a season-long Thursday night schedule, which results in every team going just three days between games at some point during the season.
That may be "fair" in the NFL's eyes (every team has to do it, and they do have rules such as no Thursday night game before or after a bye), but if you're so worried about concussions and other injuries, why are you asking the players to subject their bodies to the physical toll of an NFL game twice in four days, especially since one of them will have to travel? I don't care how much rest they get between Thursday night and their next game. That's probably one of the most obvious reasons why the quality of play on Thursday night is often pretty bad.
Take the Redskins. They played a Sunday night game before traveling to Dallas for an afternoon game on Thanksgiving. That's two games in less than 72 hours! Likewise, the Cowboys played back-to-back Thursdays, then not again until Sunday night! And earlier this season, we had three consecutive weeks where the Cardinals, Broncos and Bears played a Monday night game the week after they played on Thursday night. So, they played twice in four days, then not again until 11 days later. People would've been easily forgiven for forgetting Arizona, Denver or Chicago was even in the league during that span!
There's no continuity, either. The games have jumped between CBS, NFL Network and NBC, with the broadcast crews and graphics completely changing in the middle of the season!
Thursday Night Football was a worthwhile idea. One that worked for a while. But it doesn't work anymore. The NFL may be the king, but they're oversaturating the market. Fans already watch all day Sunday (starting at 9:30 a.m. if there's a London game) and on Monday nights. Thursday makes three nights of primetime games. That's simply too much to ask of even the most die-hard fans. Especially when they don't particularly care if they miss the Thursday night offering.
Will the NFL lose anything other than some pride and a little money by admitting defeat with Thursday Night Football? Probably not. If they keep it going, fans will continue to complain about it/make fun of it, but likely will keep watching. Just like if they bring an end to Thursday Night Football, people will miss it for a little while, but will get over it just as quickly.
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