Thursday Night Football Worth It?

[SPIRITOF12]

I can understand the monetary value of a night game on National TV, but what about moving Thursday Night to Saturday Night? And I would like the bye week to be the same for all teams at mid season.

 

[seahawkfreak]

It's always about money. Should it become unprofitable.........it will be gone.

I think if they look at it carefully it is already unprofitable. It is nominally profitable because of the ad revenue from Thursday. But I think that it is actually unprofitable when you consider that the Thursday injury toll decreases the quality of the football product being sold to the advertisers. Viewers are decreasing, which decreases ad revenues.

I would like to see the injury rate and seriousness for Thursday compared to Sunday.

Not sure about "nominally profitable".

NFL makes enormous 'Thursday Night Football' deal with NBC and CBS

"That works out to $45 million per game and a total of $900 million over the life of the deal.

The Thursday Night Football package will grow to 10 games in 2016 and 2017 from eight games in 2014 and 2015, the league announced Monday."

 

[THE TABS]

If they want to keep Thursday games in the schedule just set it up so its always teams coming off their bye week. They get a week and a half before the game and a week and a half after the game. NFL gets to keep their Thursday game and players get even more time to recuperate.

Win-win for everybody.

AGREED.

Have TNF onlly between weeks 5 through 11, and not during the entire duration. I’d take it one step further and apply that to Thanksgiving week. More rest = better games :2thumbs:

 

[Sports Hernia]

The only way anything happens is when one of the league's real golden boys or team goes down on a Thurs night - I am talking Brady Rodgers or a Cowboy. Much like the Brady ACL injury brought in the low hit to the QB rule and the Fail Mary against the Pack created enough embarrassment to bring a quick end to the refs strike.

Truth!
Thursday Night football is one of Rog’s bad ideas.

They can tweak it for the better however by giving both teams a bye the week before. That will somewhat takeout the fatigue and injury factor.

 

[Crizilla]

As much as I hate Thursday night games, I'm thankful the Seahawks are undefeated in them.

 

[valleyflyfisher]

Where have all you complainers been over the last few decades? Didn't hear much belly aching about Detroit and Dallas , or their opponents, having to suit up once a year on a Thursday. It's ONE freakin game a year, one week a year they have a four day turnaround. Is it an ideal situation for a high level athlete? No. Is there is huge spike in injuries for these athletes playing on Thursdays? No. The only thing I see increase due to Thursday night football is whining and complaining, from the athletes, then the fans follow suit and whine and stomp their feet that the "product" suffers...really? Watched many games over the years the stunk up not only the stadiums they were played in, but also my living room from having watched them on my TV, yes, 1 PM local games played in ideal conditions that absolutely stunk!

 

[FidelisHawk]

Does anyone have any evidence that there are more injury? Obviously it seems like it and escpically after tonight we feel there that way but is there actually any truth to it? I can't remember when but I listen to a couple of guess talk about having 2 bye weeks to help with Thrusday night football and they couldn't think of one downside to it. I'm not sure why the player agreed to it.

While not definitive Field Gulls lists three studies saying there doesn’t seem to be any correlation for an increase injuries between Thursday nite games or Sunday/Monday.

There’s is also interesting banter on the merits of the studies.

https://www.fieldgulls.com/2017/11/10/1 ... d-injuries

 

[RolandDeschain]

Kuechly’s concussions the last two years occurred on TNF.

A concussion is about the only injury out there completely unrelated to how good of shape you're in or how much time you have to practice for a game for, though.

 

[Scorpion05]

Where have all you complainers been over the last few decades? Didn't hear much belly aching about Detroit and Dallas , or their opponents, having to suit up once a year on a Thursday. It's ONE freakin game a year, one week a year they have a four day turnaround. Is it an ideal situation for a high level athlete? No. Is there is huge spike in injuries for these athletes playing on Thursdays? No. The only thing I see increase due to Thursday night football is whining and complaining, from the athletes, then the fans follow suit and whine and stomp their feet that the "product" suffers...really? Watched many games over the years the stunk up not only the stadiums they were played in, but also my living room from having watched them on my TV, yes, 1 PM local games played in ideal conditions that absolutely stunk!

TNF has been questioned for the longest. It IS a 3 day turnaround, and across the entire league is a lot different from one or two teams. The fact is, it takes more than 3-4 days to recover. That's LOGIC, not whining or complaining. Some of you love throwing that around. Wear and tear happens over the course of time and if players are not recovering consistently, even for one week a year, it can have an immediate impact

I've watched enough Thursday Night games to realize that yes, the product really does suffer. You CANNOT install a full game plan or go full speed on a Thursday. Can you even name an absolutely GREAT game that took place on a Thursday night? Maybe one or two?

 

[valleyflyfisher]

Where have all you complainers been over the last few decades? Didn't hear much belly aching about Detroit and Dallas , or their opponents, having to suit up once a year on a Thursday. It's ONE freakin game a year, one week a year they have a four day turnaround. Is it an ideal situation for a high level athlete? No. Is there is huge spike in injuries for these athletes playing on Thursdays? No. The only thing I see increase due to Thursday night football is whining and complaining, from the athletes, then the fans follow suit and whine and stomp their feet that the "product" suffers...really? Watched many games over the years the stunk up not only the stadiums they were played in, but also my living room from having watched them on my TV, yes, 1 PM local games played in ideal conditions that absolutely stunk!

TNF has been questioned for the longest. It IS a 3 day turnaround, and across the entire league is a lot different from one or two teams. The fact is, it takes more than 3-4 days to recover. That's LOGIC, not whining or complaining. Some of you love throwing that around. Wear and tear happens over the course of time and if players are not recovering consistently, even for one week a year, it can have an immediate impact

I've watched enough Thursday Night games to realize that yes, the product really does suffer. You CANNOT install a full game plan or go full speed on a Thursday. Can you even name an absolutely GREAT game that took place on a Thursday night? Maybe one or two?

Where are you coming up with the 3 day turnaround? Finish Sunday game @5 PM Sunday don't blow the whistle to start Thursday night game until 5:15, that's just over 96 hours, and I'll even do the math for you, 96/24 = 4 Days. And once more I'll ask, where was all the complaining from Detroit, or Dallas, when they have been playing Thursday night games for decades? There was next to none and in fact a common quote from players in post game interviews was they looked forward to the "mini bye" following the Thanksgiving games. And as far as quality of games, there was more than a few stinkers today, like most Sundays....so where can we throw the blame for them?

 

[seahawkfreak]

Where are you coming up with the 3 day turnaround? Finish Sunday game @5 PM Sunday don't blow the whistle to start Thursday night game until 5:15, that's just over 96 hours, and I'll even do the math for you, 96/24 = 4 Days. And once more I'll ask, where was all the complaining from Detroit, or Dallas, when they have been playing Thursday night games for decades? There was next to none and in fact a common quote from players in post game interviews was they looked forward to the "mini bye" following the Thanksgiving games. And as far as quality of games, there was more than a few stinkers today, like most Sundays....so where can we throw the blame for them?

Well let's do it this way

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
3 days off (no games)

Sunday and Thursday are game days and shouldn't be counted as down time just for simplification purposes and a full nights sleep. Would you say a player got a day of rest if they played a game Sunday at 4pm then played Monday at 4pm? No, you wouldn't, even though there is a 24 hour period between games.

This is a regular week in the NFL.

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
6 days off (no games)

Whether you go my way or your way of calculating actual time off there are still 3 less days to recuperate and everyday counts. There was a time years ago where players and coaches complained about the shortened week from Monday night games.

As for the Thanksgiving analysis, no one wanted to play on that Thursday for numerous reasons, shortened week, Thanksgiving etc.. Dallas' and Detroit's owners volunteered to play for promotional reasons and it then became a tradition that those two teams played every Thanksgiving.

 

[chris98251]

Also if it's a road game you have to account for travel day before game day, that's not a day off packing and traveling. Plus you give up the normal day off whether its Tuesday of Monday.

 

[Torc]

The solution is actually quite simple and it is annoying hey haven't done it

Add second Bye week into the season. Create TNF for two teams coming off Bye week only. You now add two more times where players gets more rest, you keep the TNF revenue, you improve the product and you get better overall health

This. It's so obvious that they'll never do it.

 

[Scorpion05]

No Kam or Sherm, so definitely not

 

[Sox-n-Hawks]

I'm shocked people are actually taking the side of players in this. Aren't we suppose to always side with the more successful ones (billionaires) vs the Thugs?
I mean ... these players are paid millions, why don't they just shut up and play. I would play the game every day, if I was paid that. Owners have made billions in business. They know what they are doing. Who are we to question billionaires?
The league is a business first. It is all about profit. Why are we so worry about the feelings or the safety or the emotions of these millionaires? Can't they use these millions to find ways to keep their bodies healthy? If they can't play 2 games in 5 days, then they should be let go and younger and stronger guys should be signed. I really don't understand these complains. To me, John and Pete need to be blamed for this. They have guys on the roster who can't play 2 games in 5 days. They know very well that Thursday night games are on the schedule. And they are not prepared. As someone famous and who shall not be named recently said, the NFL has become too soft. The Raiders and Chiefs had a great game on Thursday night and it was lots of fun. And nobody got hurt. We should sign some of their players in the offseason. I'm sure their fans love Thursday Night Games. How do you think Rams feel about TNF, now that Sherman is out of the season? They certainly love it. How about the rest of the NFC? 15 teams in the NFC love TNF today.
Our players should just shut up and play. The owners need the money desperately.
And our fans should get inline with the program ...

Oh wait ... this Crap just hit OUR team, OUR family, OUR guys ... never mind ....

Yup, millionaire crybabies. Just play, rotate players a bit for Thursday nights... .like other sports who play a TON more games. I LOVE Thursday night games. Or any night game. I highly doubt there are legitimate arguments other than, "I'm tired."