The Dark Side of Thursday Football

Details are slowly leaking out about the possible new labor agreement coming.  Nothing is set in stone yet, but the rumors out there are pretty intriguing.  The big headline coming out is that players are being offered 48% of a revenue split.  It’s not the 50% they were after, but higher than the 40% some owners were willing to give up.  I’ll sum up my opinion on that by saying this.  Who cares?  Outside of the owners and the players, it doesn’t matter how the money is split up.  The topic that does matter isn’t being discussed enough…

Thursday Night Football!  At first glance, it sounds great.  There couldn’t possibly be any wrong with more football, right?  As an unbiased fan, that is true.  If the proposal of having 16 Thursday night games is approved, then NFL fans won’t have to go longer than two straight days out of the week without football.  NFL teams that don’t get a lot of prime time games will now have a better opportunity for national exposure.  But, that’s not why this is happening.  It’s happening for the same reason that the lockout happened: the almighty dollar.

The NFL Network struggled in the early years, but their saving grace was Thursday night football.  When they got the OK to run their own prime time games, their subscribers skyrocketed.  They also magically got into more homes through more providers on cheaper packages.  While the NFL Network may not get all 16 games, they’ll get the majority of them.  This is a massive revenue stream for the NFL.  TV contracts are king.  They’ll make more money off of the TV deal for 16 prime time games than they would for adding two more regular season games.

I’ll gladly watch these games, as I am a NFL fan as well as a scout and writer.  The negative aspect comes into account when you factor in several on-field disadvantages.  The NFL is a gladiator sport.  These athletes need time to heal from the previous week’s game.  The NFL claims they are safety conscious to their players, but in all actuality, they are money conscious.  How do they discipline their players for safety concerns?  Fines.  Why are they willing to have players perform on short rest and even fly to England or Toronto for games?  Money and to grow the game internationally for more money.

For the fans that play Fantasy Football, this will affect you as well.  In both scenarios, what happens when a guy is fighting through injury and has to play a Sunday night game in Seattle?  Then, that same player has to catch a late night flight back to Miami.  He wouldn’t get back home until the early hours on Monday.  The NFL’s usual off day of Tuesday wouldn’t apply if he had another game on Thursday.  They would have to prep that day.  What would be the chance that he could rest Monday and practice Tuesday and travel Wednesday for a game on Thursday?  That’s an extreme case, but not far fetched.

The NFL has tabled the 18 game season for now, but it’s still coming.  In the next few years, the NFL will have their players playing 18 regular season games and on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Asking them to do it two more times a year and on a shorter rehab period is inhumane and impossible.  Get familiarized with your team’s depth chart and practice squad, because all my rowdy 3rd stringers will be playing on Thursday Night!

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