NFL reportedly considering flex scheduling for 'Thursday Night Football'

[seafoam1 662]

15 days notice sounds about right. I bet a lot on this site don't like TNF, but I like it. Hope they improve the quality of the games they put on.

 

The NFL apparently wants to do something about its consistently maligned slate of "Thursday Night Football" games.

The league's owners will be asked at next week's league meetings to vote on the addition of a flex-scheduling plan for late-season Thursday games, according to Sports Business Journal. The vote would reportedly also increase the number of times each team can play Thursday games after a Sunday game in a season, from one to two.

Under the new rules, Sunday afternoon games could be shifted to Thursday night in weeks 14-17 with 15 days notice.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suggested such a change could be on the way last month.

The NFL's two media committees have reportedly been supportive of the change, and such measures are rarely sent to the owners for a vote without a strong belief they will pass. However, it could still face resistance from coaches present at the league meetings and the NFLPA, which has raised concerns about Thursday games in the past.

"Thursday Night Football" is coming off its first season streaming exclusively on Amazon's Prime Video, for which the the company is paying $1 billion per year.

If you're asking this question, you probably haven't been playing close attention to these games and their reception.

Even with the addition of Amazon's financial backing, "Thursday Night Football" remains something of a joke among fans, and even its own Hall of Fame announcer. Case in point: after a Week 8 game between the Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, not a single TNF game featured two playoffs teams for the rest of the season.

Only two of those eight games were decided by one score. Some games were truly unwatchable as well, one to the point a Denver television station apologized for airing it to the local market.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-reportedly-considering-flex-scheduling-for-thursday-night-football-011920108.html

[TBayXXXVII 1,839]

Thursday Night was originally tabbed as being for division matchups, mainly of middle or the road/below average teams, as a place to give them a CBA mandated nationally televised game.  On top of that, you're getting a game where neither team has ample time to prepare of their opponents.  No one should have ever expected to see "good football" on Thursday night.

IF, and that's a big "if" (if you didn't notice), the players actually cared about "player safety", they'd tell the NFL to do away with Thursday night football with the understanding that the salary cap will go down.

[seafoam1 662]

2 hours ago, TBayXXXVII said:

Thursday Night was originally tabbed as being for division matchups, mainly of middle or the road/below average teams, as a place to give them a CBA mandated nationally televised game.  On top of that, you're getting a game where neither team has ample time to prepare of their opponents.  No one should have ever expected to see "good football" on Thursday night.

IF, and that's a big "if" (if you didn't notice), the players actually cared about "player safety", they'd tell the NFL to do away with Thursday night football with the understanding that the salary cap will go down.

Hit their pocketbooks? Nuh uh. 

I think most of them realize that they are not in some noble profession and that they are simply in the entertainment industry. The NFL leadership has made that league into a monster industry, along with the help of fantasy football. I tend to think that the majority of football players would be perfectly happy making more money in the present and having a couple less years in their careers due to physical reasons. Get in the league, make a few million, get out while you are early 30s and go enjoy life.

Thursday night football is here to stay. If anything, I wish it would be moved to Friday night or Saturday day/night simply for my own viewing reasons. 

[TBayXXXVII 1,839]

1 minute ago, seafoam1 said:

Hit their pocketbooks? Nuh uh. 

I think most of them realize that they are not in some noble profession and that they are simply in the entertainment industry. The NFL leadership has made that league into a monster industry, along with the help of fantasy football. I tend to think that the majority of football players would be perfectly happy making more money in the present and having a couple less years in their careers due to physical reasons. Get in the league, make a few million, get out while you are early 30s and go enjoy life.

Thursday night football is here to stay. If anything, I wish it would be moved to Friday night or Saturday day/night simply for my own viewing reasons. 

Exactly.  Players don't care about "player safety" unless they can use it to get something they want.

Thursday night football should only be done during bye weeks.  Have teams on a bye (that Sunday), play their next game on Thursday.  They must play a team that is also on a bye, so that both teams have a week and a half to prepare.  Then, both will get a week and a half to before their next game.  The kicker is, those two teams would play the other two teams, who were on a bye and hence, had the same time to prepare.  Can't do that though, because that's common sense.

[weepaws 1,843]

I thought that they already did this with those Thursday night games.  Now they do flex Th Monday night games right?  

[Showboat 83]

This really only screws over the hard-core fans who actually want to see a game live at the stadium, plan events around NFL games and/or want to travel to support their team at away games, etc.  There are a lot of reasons many fans would just rather watch on TV - this just adds to that list.

[seafoam1 662]

1 hour ago, Showboat said:

This really only screws over the hard-core fans who actually want to see a game live at the stadium, plan events around NFL games and/or want to travel to support their team at away games, etc.  There are a lot of reasons many fans would just rather watch on TV - this just adds to that list.

I'm a pretty big fan and prefer to watch the games on tv. I've been to s ton of games and had a lot of fun at them, but when I really want to watch the game intently, tv is always my preferred choice. And I honestly prefer not to watch it with a bunch of people.

[weepaws 1,843]

7 hours ago, Showboat said:

This really only screws over the hard-core fans who actually want to see a game live at the stadium, plan events around NFL games and/or want to travel to support their team at away games, etc.  There are a lot of reasons many fans would just rather watch on TV - this just adds to that list.

Look at the good side of those people staying home, saving money they really can’t afford to waste on a game that doesn’t matter.  

 

[seafoam1 662]

6 minutes ago, weepaws said:

Look at the good side of those people staying home, saving money they really can’t afford to waste on a game that doesn’t matter.  

 

Just curious. What do you know about other people's ability to afford to go to a sporting event?

Either way, it doesn't matter. It will be interesting to see what comes of this and some of the other things on the table. 

[gridiron whirlwinds 1]

18 hours ago, TBayXXXVII said:

Thursday Night was originally tabbed as being for division matchups, mainly of middle or the road/below average teams, as a place to give them a CBA mandated nationally televised game.  On top of that, you're getting a game where neither team has ample time to prepare of their opponents.  No one should have ever expected to see "good football" on Thursday night.

IF, and that's a big "if" (if you didn't notice), the players actually cared about "player safety", they'd tell the NFL to do away with Thursday night football with the understanding that the salary cap will go down.

I agree, this is just getting out of hand....expecting to see good football on Thursday after a Sunday game and now some teams will have to do it twice.

Need to get those ratings up and get better games for Amazon.

[LaChup 108]

Thursday games are for pillow biters.

[weepaws 1,843]

54 minutes ago, LaChup said:

Thursday games are for pillow biters.

Woman?

[seafoam1 662]

11 hours ago, gridiron whirlwinds said:

I agree, this is just getting out of hand....expecting to see good football on Thursday after a Sunday game and now some teams will have to do it twice.

Need to get those ratings up and get better games for Amazon.

Well, if players like Lamar Jackson, Tunsil, Watson, Roquan Smith etc etc want their garaunteed 10s-100s of millions in cash, then the focus on ratings is a pretty good start for teams pulling in money to be able to pay these guys.