Should the NFL cancel Thursday Night Football

[backtobackwinningseasons]

I was actually excited when they first announced it. The more days of football, the better I thought. But the product on the field is mostly bad. It's absolutely clear now that NFL teams need more than 3 days off between games (should have been really obvious in hindsight). Even college teams that play on Thursday get an extra day off by virtue of playing their regular games a day earlier. Time for Goodell to end the experiment.

[hepcat]

Yes. The Thursday Night games are always trash. Players hate playing on a short week and the Thursday games tend to suck. I already devote my Sunday afternoons to football and I don't really feel like giving up another evening of my time to watch a sorry ass matchup between two garbage teams.

The NFL as a whole is declining, they know it and we know it. If they get rid of Thursday games, they basically admit it publicly. 

[PurityControl]

If they are going to keep it then I kind of liked how it was before which was only half the season starting later in the year IIRC. Every year I start out watching it when the season starts & by midseason I’m done.

I’m not tuning in December to watch the 2-12 Jets vs the 3-11 Browns.

Keep it but not every week.

[Goondal]

The match-ups for this are always going to suck.

For one, you can set up good match-ups but then by November have one or both teams be worthless, as happens every year.

Flexing the game is not an option as it would be extremely unfair to both the teams (players would never agree to that) and the fans (imagine a Roaring Riot trip getting ruined by a TNF flex).

Due to the competitive disadvantage it puts on the participating teams the only way to make it work is how they do it now, with every team getting their turn.  That means sometimes you are showcasing the Jets.

[PantherPhann89]

If these games aren't played on Thursday Night, won't they be played on Sunday or Mondy night? It's not an issue as to the games being bad or risking injury, its wether or mot tbe NFL wants to shell out the money for a new Thursday Night agreement. But as a fan of the NFL, I want to watch NFL football as much as I can. So mu vote is NO

[ThPantherFan]

7 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

The teams increase injury risk to their players.

For this reason alone, they should scrap the games.

[TheSpecialJuan]

8 hours ago, Jeremy Igo said:

Should the NFL cancel Thursday Night Football at the end of it's current sponsorship cycle? 

No good comes from it. The games are bad. The ratings are low. The teams increase injury risk to their players. 

 

Scrap it. 

Yes.

[CatMan72]

No because the only thing worse than a bad Thursday night game is no game at all. These bad match ups are going to happen either way, I still find it interesting to watch even if the score and overall quality of play is low. 

[Hogmolliesmaht]

I'm still trying to figure out what was so bad about last night's match up. It was better than the overhyped Sunday night game between the Cowboys and Giants that was never in doubt. At least you got a close game last night that wasn't decided until the last couple of minutes. 

[PurityControl]

30 minutes ago, Hogmolliesmaht said:

I'm still trying to figure out what was so bad about last night's match up. It was better than the overhyped Sunday night game between the Cowboys and Giants that was never in doubt. At least you got a close game last night that wasn't decided until the last couple of minutes. 

IMO it was sloppy offensive football it’s not like either defense was crushing it. 2 porous offensive lines a rookie QB locked into one WR & another doing his Akili Smith impersonation.

Felt like a preseason game.

I’ll say I like the announcing of Tirico & Collinsworth over that dog shize crew that’s MNF

 

[Salisburysean98]

Scrap it and make it Saturday night football. More time to prepare. And it's a special game because it's played on the weekend. Full weekend of football. Better games as a result. 

[jfra78]

1 hour ago, Salisburysean98 said:

Scrap it and make it Saturday night football. More time to prepare. And it's a special game because it's played on the weekend. Full weekend of football. Better games as a result. 

Whether it's right or wrong, the NFL will never play games on Saturday or Friday because of college and High School.  They explained this when they started TNF 

Edit- This is of course unless there is no college or football games playing which is why you see it in the post season

[GSO_Pantherz]

Thursday night football is dump.

[RetiredCollegeCoach]

23 hours ago, PhillyB said:

The market is oversaturated.

Make the Thanksgiving game the first one and then flex playoff implication games into that slot in December.

Exactly. Even if the games are good, don't oversaturate the market.

One of the real secrets to the sport's popularity is that there's not a lot of it. You've got a handful of games, on a handful of days, and the whole thing takes less than half the year. When it's on, it feels special - an event. It's short, sweet, simple. 

(That's especially important in an era when even fairly casual fans feel compelled to track every movement of a whole league. The NFL is easy to wrap your head around.)

Compare that to the ridiculous NBA regular season, or the absurdity of baseball. 

Don't let football ooze out all over the damn week. Keep it to a short and tight window. 

Oh, and bring it to as many people as possible in that window. You might make some money in the meantime by making football a sport for the rich, but you'll sure as hell kill it in the long-term.

And let fans league-wide vote on one owner per year to be publicly beheaded. We can add a "pass" voting option once the Jed Yorks of the world are gone, of course.