Salk: Can We Finally Knock Off This Thursday Night Football Nonsense?

​Tyler Salk

A few years back, the NFL decided to implement a Thursday game to open every single week. Not just the first game of the year, and not only on Thanksgiving, but every Thursday night. TNF has received mixed reviews, however there is one person without any mixed feelings. Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has spoken out against Thursday Night Football a few times, and just called the weekly games an “Absolute poopfest.”

Here are WBOB's 9 reasons Thursday night is not the night for football.

1) Every team gets to play at least one Thursday game per season now. The featured game could include the Cleveland Browns. They faced the Ravens on a Thursday night and were blown out. Good luck having me go out, on a weeknight, to watch an uncompetitive matchup. The NFL often will have a  competitive matchup, but too often the primetime game has two teams I don’t want to see.

2) People have work, and children have school, on Fridays. Roger, I’ve got to wake up in the morning, bro! Yeah, people do go out on Thursday nights, but it’s not worth going into work groggy every Friday. Granted I might still not do it, but that doesn’t make it worth it.

3) Players aren’t getting enough rest. A lot of us would be exhausted after playing one offensive drive, let alone an entire game. So, you’re an East coast team finishing up in Seattle, and you land back home at two in the morning on a Monday, sore, and fatigued. You don’t necessarily have the day to rest, because you have to get ready for the high intensity game you have three days later.

4) So, if players have less time to rest, how can they expect to have more time to practice? Every game has a favorite, and sometimes it isn’t close. A team can overcome adversity and get the win if they practice certain strategies, and perfect them. How could the Bears stand a chance on the road against the Packers if they only had half a week’s worth of practice to prepare for a much better team? Not that anything could help the Bears.

5) The NFL gained popularity with the rise of fantasy football, and with Thursday night football, there are consequences to fantasy football. You cannot wait out a decision for who to start until Sunday anymore, because if a guy is playing on Thursday he’ll lock into your active lineup or on the bench on Thursday. If I have Andrew Luck playing on Sunday, but he might not play and my backup is playing Thursday night, I might be stuck with the backup so I get some points. Only to find out Sunday at noon that Luck will play.

​6)​ The injuries do not just affect fantasy football, but real football. With less recovery time, there is a slimmer chance of the player playing, or at least playing at the full strength they would be if they had an extra few days of recovery. We hear a lot about stars, but when a no name isn’t able to play, he might be in danger of losing his job and be unable to support his family.

7) Thanksgiving games are less special if every week has Thursday Night Football. For a Lions or Cowboys fan, of course it is different knowing that your team will go out and play a traditional Thanksgiving game each year. Football on a Thursday just makes it such a regular occurrence, that the midweek games aren’t worth celebrating.

8) We’ve already covered how Thursday Night is a weeknight, and how you won’t want to wake up on Friday morning. What might be even tougher is staying awake on Thursday night. You wake up early for whatever you have to do during the work week, and you’re trying to just get everything done to make sure that you can enjoy your weekend. Is it even worth staying awake to watch a one-sided contest? Probably not. I’ll sleep, and dream about the better teams matching up on Sunday.

9) Thursday night football makes Richard Sherman speak out. These are just like those DirecTV commercials where one bad thing leads to another, but it’s funny at least. Remember his rant against Michael Crabtree? Shut up dude! No one cares what you’re going to say. No one really likes Thursday Night Football, but we’re not going to call it a poopfest. Sometimes Richie, people laugh with you, not at you. Thanks for inspiring this article though.

​Ultimately, I am not a fan of Thursday Night Football. If the league wants an opening game each week, I’d prefer for it to be the matchup of the week, and for it to take place over the weekend. The league is always looking for more revenue. Can you say Saturday Night (NFL) Football?

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