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Will Thursday Night Football hurt the NFL!?

If it was really a problem the NFL should wait until week 4 to start these games and make up the schedule so the teams that have to play on Thursday night have their bye week beforehand so the quality of play doesn't take a significant dip. I'm sure they won't, but this is how they could address any "quality of play" problems.
 
It doesn't matter there are problems if there is a perception. The bye week idea is a good one.
 
Does anybody believe me now about my original premise of Thursday Night games?

I do agree with the two posts above in that a possible solution is for the teams to have a bye week before playing a Thursday night game. However, the only problem with this is that the bye week does not normally start until around Week 4. Therefore, there is still a problem with Thursday night games during Weeks 2, 3, 4 (Week 1 does not matter because it is the first game of the season).
 
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Bridgewater said he would have started at QB if the game was on Sunday. Three days is just not enough turnaround for these guys.
 
CDeacMan said:
What are the numbers from last night's NFL game versus baseball playoffs?
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Vikes-Packers 10.4
Tigers-O's 2.9
Royals-Angels 3.2

The NFL is too big to be hurt by a bunch of TNF blowouts. I wish the games would go away, but with ratings like they've received it just isn't going to happen.

What the league should do is give teams byes leading into their TNF game. That wouldn't be that hard to pull off
 
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CDeacMan said:
What are the numbers from last night's NFL game versus baseball playoffs?
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I never said anything about ratings. I agree that if you put any NFL game on Prime time TV, then that game will not only have the highest ratings of any television program during that time slot, but blow away the competition. Even MNF, which is on cable, brought in 14.4 million viewers and a 5.3 share. For those that do not follow TV ratings, those are crazy numbers for network TV, let alone cable.

My premise was that NFL games on Thursday are poor in their quality due to either one or two variables or a combination of those variables, aka lack of rest/recovery time for the players and lack of time for the coaches to prepare and implement a game plan.
 
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i think it hurts fantasy football which in turn will hurt the nfl.
 
To Roger Goodell, the ratings are pretty much the only thing that matters in this equation. The NFL doesn't give two shits about the quality of play or if the players are not physically able to turn around in three days to play another game if fans still watch. So the answer is no.
 
CDeacMan said:
To Roger Goodell, the ratings are pretty much the only thing that matters in this equation. The NFL doesn't give two shits about the quality of play or if the players are not physically able to turn around in three days to play another game if fans still watch. So the answer is no.
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I agree with you on this, and in fact it is quite sad for multiple reasons. You are correct in that as long as the ratings are high, and the NFL is making a profit, then Thursday night games are here to stay. However, it is at the expense of player safety, and the quality of the games. What I find sad is that the majority of NFL fans will watch an NFL game if it is on no matter of the quality of the game. In fact, I find this fascinating because why are fans tuning in to watch blowouts? Is it because as a society we have some how developed a "Bloodlust Factor", have fans of the NFL become so brainwashed that they will watch any NFL game regardless of the quality of play, or is there another variable out there? Personally, I can not watch bad football, and that is what most Thursday night games have become.
 
BamaDeac said:
I agree with you on this, and in fact it is quite sad for multiple reasons. You are correct in that as long as the ratings are high, and the NFL is making a profit, then Thursday night games are here to stay. However, it is at the expense of player safety, and the quality of the games. What I find sad is that the majority of NFL fans will watch an NFL game if it is on no matter of the quality of the game. In fact, I find this fascinating because why are fans tuning in to watch blowouts? Is it because as a society we have some how developed a "Bloodlust Factor", have fans of the NFL become so brainwashed that they will watch any NFL game regardless of the quality of play, or is there another variable out there? Personally, I can not watch bad football, and that is what most Thursday night games have become.
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NFL fans=LCD
 
BamaDeac said:
I agree with you on this, and in fact it is quite sad for multiple reasons. You are correct in that as long as the ratings are high, and the NFL is making a profit, then Thursday night games are here to stay. However, it is at the expense of player safety, and the quality of the games. What I find sad is that the majority of NFL fans will watch an NFL game if it is on no matter of the quality of the game. In fact, I find this fascinating because why are fans tuning in to watch blowouts? Is it because as a society we have some how developed a "Bloodlust Factor", have fans of the NFL become so brainwashed that they will watch any NFL game regardless of the quality of play, or is there another variable out there? Personally, I can not watch bad football, and that is what most Thursday night games have become.
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fantasy & gambling

Didn't the NFL powers want to expand the regular season to 18 games when players started bitching about the high number of preseason games and the injuries that were occurring?
 
BamaDeac said:
I agree with you on this, and in fact it is quite sad for multiple reasons. You are correct in that as long as the ratings are high, and the NFL is making a profit, then Thursday night games are here to stay. However, it is at the expense of player safety, and the quality of the games. What I find sad is that the majority of NFL fans will watch an NFL game if it is on no matter of the quality of the game. In fact, I find this fascinating because why are fans tuning in to watch blowouts? Is it because as a society we have some how developed a "Bloodlust Factor", have fans of the NFL become so brainwashed that they will watch any NFL game regardless of the quality of play, or is there another variable out there? Personally, I can not watch bad football, and that is what most Thursday night games have become.
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I can believe there may be some negative effects of over-saturation with the Thursday night games because now there are nationally televised games three nights a week (I realize NFL Network is national but I'm sure a much higher percentage of cable subscribers have ESPN only than ESPN and NFL Network). But quickly scrolling through the final scores of all Thursday Night Football contests, I don't necessarily see a huge amount of blowouts versus closer games. The short week turnarounds just generally favor the home teams and the better teams. The games this year is a small sample size. If over the next few years the games continue to generally be blowouts, then your theory could prove true (but still would require a ratings dip).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Network_Thursday_Night_Football_results_(2006–present)
 
CDeacMan said:
I can believe there may be some negative effects of over-saturation with the Thursday night games because now there are nationally televised games three nights a week (I realize NFL Network is national but I'm sure a much higher percentage of cable subscribers have ESPN only than ESPN and NFL Network). But quickly scrolling through the final scores of all Thursday Night Football contests, I don't necessarily see a huge amount of blowouts versus closer games. The short week turnarounds just generally favor the home teams and the better teams. The games this year is a small sample size. If over the next few years the games continue to generally be blowouts, then your theory could prove true (but still would require a ratings dip).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Network_Thursday_Night_Football_results_(2006–present)
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I mentioned this in a previous post on the page before. Just because the final score wasn't a blowout doesn't mean the game was not competitive. I have watched plenty of NFL games when the winning margin was less than 2 TDs, but the game was not competitive. Ever hear a saying similar to, "The final score did not indicate how the game was not even close". Also, my argument from the beginning has been more about the poor quality of the game and not the final score of the game. Also, I am not saying that ALL Thursday night games are poor in quality, but the majority, say 70%-85% are poor in quality. (In other words, maybe 3-5 games a year might be good, but 12-14 will not be good)
 
It's hard to argue with that because it's your opinion on how a particular game is played and it's impossible to try to analyze if those types of games occur more often on Thursday than Sunday (although stat geeks might have some measure of it), so the only real problem I see facing the NFL on this is if more and more fans begin to agree with you and stop watching the Thursday night games regularly.
 
Could care less about Thursday NFL- will still watch the college games on ESPN, FS1, etc.
 
Between the general state of affairs in college and the pros, the actual game play of all teams and especially the Deacs and ChiBears, I really don't give a shit anymore.

I'm just counting the days 'til April 9th and Augusta.

188 days...
 
I don't like the Thursday night games. Leave Thursday night to college football if they want it.

I'll like it even less if the NFL decides to go to an 18 game schedule. That's just overkill.
 
Per NFL Insiders the margin of victory last season in TNF games was actually lower than the average game last year. Doesn't necessarily mean the quality of play has been great, but at least it helps.

Maybe things will improve -- HOU/IND, NYJ/NE and SD/DEN the next three weeks don't look like complete mismatches, on paper at least, and the former and latter should be very good games
 
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