NFL allowing teams to play two TNF games is a huge mistake

Mar 29, 2023 - 3:00 PM

As if Thursday Night Football wasn’t a bore enough to watch already, the NFL has decided to add twice the fun after announcing a scheduling change Tuesday.

I suppose it’s because misery enjoys company. Technically, teams have been playing two Thursday games already if they were selected for one of the three Thanksgiving games. Still, this approval isn’t ideal for a league that supposedly cares about player safety.

News flash: they don’t and quite frankly they never will. Money will always be the deciding factor in the end. That much is apparent with each passing season. Fans all over social media panned the announcement and voiced their frustrations accordingly.

The NFL can’t say they support player safety while going against their players’ wishes and shoving 17-game schedules and TNF down their throats. While I can’t find the statistics to back up the increased injury risk for Thursday night games, the reasoning is simple. A sport as physical as football isn’t meant to be played on four days rest. Injuries will happen regardless but there’s a clear difference a week makes between games compared to just four days.

Forget that the Rams played the most thrilling TNF matchup of the season last year in a last-second win over the Raiders. Most games weren’t fortunate enough to have an ending that epic. Does anyone remember that infamous Broncos-Colts crapfest? I needed intense therapy to get over that one. Find your happy place Evan. Find your happy place.

If the NFL won’t do it for the players, at least do it for poor Al Michaels. The fans had a choice whether to tune in. Michaels had to show up and couldn’t leave no matter how dreadful the games were. On the bright side, he’s getting paid a lot to call painfully boring football so he shouldn’t be complaining that much.

During Tuesday’s meeting, NFL owners decided to table a proposal until May allowing Thursday Night Football games to be flexed. If, sorry, when the plan is passed, the league would be permitted to shift Sunday afternoon games to Thursdays from weeks 14-17 with 15 days notice. Luckily for Michaels, that would eliminate TNF games between losing teams. Meaning, there would be no games between bad teams like Rams-Raiders or (shudder) Broncos-Colts.

Of course we know what the result will end up being. The power-hungry and greedy NFL has to always have the bigger piece of the pie. They must capitalize on dominating the airwaves because they know the fans are addicted to their product and can’t have enough. So if anything, this TNF change falls on us, the viewers.

It’s okay, I’ll still be tuning in this fall. The NFL’s stranglehold on me tightened a long time ago so I know I’m already too far gone at this juncture.