Sports Talk

Reshape Thursday Night Football

Posted 11/22/22

This Thursday is Thanksgiving and with that comes annual football games throughout the day to help families come together and gather around the TV after Thanksgiving dinner.

For some this may come …

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Sports Talk

Reshape Thursday Night Football

Posted

This Thursday is Thanksgiving and with that comes annual football games throughout the day to help families come together and gather around the TV after Thanksgiving dinner.

For some this may come as a surprise but the Detroit Lions have been playing in a football game on Thanksgiving almost every year with the exception of World War II since 1934 when they kicked off against the Chicago Bears.

Through the years the NFL has added time slots — and last year another game — throughout the season in order to generate more revenue, forcing more games to be moved up to Thursday and forcing teams to play on a shortened week.

A high majority of games this season have produced some duds including the two-week span of poor showings from the Indianapolis Colts 12-9 over the Denver Broncos and the Washington Commanders 12-7 over the Chicago Bears in weeks five and six.

These shortened weeks give teams much less time to prepare and forces teams to not scheme to each other’s weaknesses.

Shortened weeks also give players less time to rest and lead to some significant injuries.

I always turn on the game from week to week but sometimes find myself focusing on other projects when I realize the game just does not live up to the standard of most Sunday and Monday games in the NFL.

With Thanksgiving upon us, all six teams are playing on a shortened week with the Cowboys and Giants going to battle in an important matchup for second place in the NFC East.

While I think Thanksgiving should be the exception and not the rule like Christmas in the NBA, the NFL needs to readjust the Thursday night schedule for teams so that they do not head into the contest on a shortened schedule constantly.

One idea that has popped up has been moving the game to Friday as opposed to Thursday, but that bumping up against high school in the fall would likely never fly with the revenue department of the NFL.

Another idea could be not starting the Thursday night games until later in the season such as week four and beyond, and not playing any teams on a shortened week with matchups coming off of byes for both teams.

I know the NFL sets its schedule ahead of time for what different divisions each team will play, but the NFL needs to acknowledge that there is a problem with Thursday Night Football.

Another idea would be a second bye week for teams that allows them to play on Thursday once and another bye to give the players an extra week of rest late in the season.

Teams such as the Lions, Las Vegas Raiders, Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans had bye weeks in week six, and had to play 11 straight weeks of football without a break. Some other teams such as the Atlanta Falcons, Bears, Green Bay Packers, Colts, New Orleans Saints and Commanders will not have a bye until week 14.

That is such a workload on players and can lead to unnecessary injuries throughout the season and not give the best product for the NFL by the end of the season.

Adding a second bye week would give teams more opportunities to rest at different points of the season while potentially only extending the season by one week.

Putting out the best product should be the top priority, and the shortened week does not help the NFL achieve that goal.

While I want to watch these games on Thursday, I will also have some World Cup mixed in, with a high workload also being placed on those players as they start the battle for a world title in the middle of their domestic league campaigns.

Enjoy time with family and friends, be safe on Friday and have a fun couple of days off work before heading into the true winter season.

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