The Case for Abolishing Thursday Night Football: Events that Sparked My Interest, Week 10

Like what happened in Week 3 after President Trump’s remarks on player protests, only one thing really sparked my interest in week 10: the injuries that occurred during the Thursday Night Football game between the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals. Unlike the game between them last season, this one didn’t end in a 6-6 tie after 75 minutes on the field. Instead, 10 (and possibly 11) got injured in some capacity and had to leave the field. With that in mind, here is the case for abolishing Thursday Night Football.

Injuries

Last December, Richard Sherman wrote an article for The Players Tribune about why Thursday Night Football doesn’t work for the players. He explained what the week looks like for players when they do and don't play on Thursday, and how their bodies aren’t physically ready for games after only four days.

Other players have expressed their dislike for the game for the same reason, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and offensive lineman Richie Incognito.

With players not able to be fully healed, the chances of injury go up, and so do injuries in actuality. This has a wide range of consequences, including poor play, minimal fan interest, and the next reason for abolishing Thursday Night Football.

Decreased Play the rest of the Season

Aaron Rodgers, Odell Beckham Jr, Andrew Luck, David Johnson, Joe Thomas, JJ Watt, and Cliff Avril are among the players on the growing list of top players whose injuries have impacted their team’s season. This means that with every one of these injuries, the season gets less and less interesting. Rodgers’ injury took the Green Bay Packers from a Super Bowl contender to a team with no playoff hopes, Watt’s injury coupled with injuries to fellow Houston Texans Deshaun Watson (QB) and Whitney Mercilus (LB) killed the team’s aspirations for winning the AFC South.

When given the choice, fans won’t tune into an uninteresting game, nor will they watch a team who can no longer compete come November, let alone December. To a fan who will tune into ESPN next Monday that isn’t a diehard Atlanta Falcons or Seattle Seahawks fan, the game is suddenly a whole lot less interesting. Richard Sherman is out. Kam Chancellor may not play. Three defensive linemen will be playing hurt. The list goes on.

It doesn’t matter how you slice it, injuries are hurting the NFL season (as they always do) but the injuries from the Hawks/Cardinals game proves how much Thursday Night Football is killing the season.

Matchups are Awful

Forget the injuries, let’s go to the matchups. All teams must play on Thursday Night Football and generally games are divisional matchups. This means that, in theory, they should be good games. But, you know what? That’s wrong.

Thursday Night Football games have been some of the absolute worst games the past few seasons, providing us with matchups like Miami at Baltimore and the Bills against the Jets. The only people who tune into these games are the people who live in those markets and are fans. Even then, there are problems for those fans: the games start at 8:30pm EST.

Having Thursday Night, Sunday Night, and Monday Night football games start at 8:30 means that they aren’t over until almost midnight on days where people go to work the next day. No sane person will watch a game at home until midnight.

Between injuries, how they impact the regular season, matchups, and bad start times, it’s easy to understand why the NFL needs to abolish Thursday Night Football.

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