One of the many stories of this NFL
season are the ratings of the NFL games being down. There are many different
theories and suspicions to why they are down. For example, the Colin Kaepernick
protests, player safety issues, quality of play, & the domestic violence
issue. The main one I want to put a focus on are the issue of the Thursday
Night Football games. I think the NFL needs to do away with the TNF games for several
reasons. I will point them out to you.
Reason #1 is
the quality of play. The NFL is already grueling enough with the 16 -game
schedule and to have a Thursday night game every week is taxing on the player’s
bodies with that very short time of body rest between a Sunday game to a
Thursday night game. It’s understood that every team does it throughout the
season but nonetheless is a very taxing task. That’s giving players only a 3-day
rest between games versus the typical week they would get playing a Sunday or
even a Monday game. On January 29, 2015, the NFL
released its health and safety report, which states that an average of 4.8
injuries were sustained during Thursday games compared to 6.9 injuries per game
on Sundays and Mondays.
Reason #2 is
the matchups being shown. Games like the Ravens vs Browns, Texans vs. Patriots,
Packers vs Bears have been absolute blowouts and non-contest games. The Browns
are a team who haven’t won a game yet and look awful. Now answer this who in
their right mind wants to see a team who is 0-9 on Primetime TV. I’ll wait…………
EXACTLY No One. The Packers vs Bears is a huge rivalry game but let’s face it
the Bears aren’t a good football team so you’re walking into the game knowing
the results already before the game even kicks off.
Reason #3 is
the oversaturating of games. The NFL season has lost a bit of its lure and lust
for games by having bad TNF games every week. Everybody became so read for
Sunday’s to arrive so they can watch their team play. The anticipation for
Sundays alone made people want to watch football on that one particular day. When
fans like me see bad matchups on Thursday the hype and anticipation for Sunday’s
dwindles dramatically because the game is so bad that the anticipation for
Sunday’s take a hit. Honestly Thursday games should only be for opening night
to kick off the much-anticipated NFL season & Thanksgiving because of the
tradition of family, food, & football
Thursday
night games haven’t been good since it’s full-time inception in 2012 and I personally
think it’s time for the NFL to do away with them and return to its traditionally
just Sunday & Monday football. Us as fans haven’t shown much interest, the
matchups are bad, the quality play is bad, & it’s purely oversaturating the
sport.
