By: Kylan W. Watson
The National Football League (NFL), found itself in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman, verbally destroyed the NFL for putting the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football. With the new criticism that Sherman brought to the forefront against the NFL, it is fair to ask is it time for the NFL to end Thursday Night Football.
Sherman said, “We got home like 1 o’clock in the morning, something like that, on Monday, and then you’ve got to play again. Congratulations, NFL, you did it again. But they’ve been doing it all season, so I guess we’re the last ones to get the middle finger” (http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18272300/seattle-seahawks-cb-richard-sherman-blasts-nfl-thursday-games, 12-14-16).
Thursday Night Football has been a staple created by the NFL to get fans hyped for football on Sunday. The revenue for the games is split 50/50 between the players and owners for the game. However, the last two years the games have been awful to watch. So much so that the NFL is having a hard time finding a permanent home for the game. This year the games have been split between the NFL Network, CBS, and NBC.
Every team gets a chance to play on the NFL, but the matchups over the past few months have been terrible. The NFL has been on a streak for the last three weeks, with having more competitive games on Thursday night. Last week saw the Raiders vs. the Chiefs, the previous week the Cowboys played the Vikings, and the Vikings played the week prior to that against the Lions. The NFL has put the Browns and the Jacksonville Jaguars in Thursday night matchups as well. Those are teams that are terrible to watch. The question for fans is are you willing to keep watching Thursday night Football games, if we only get maybe six to eight good matchups per season on Thursday Night’s .
It is very obvious that is hard for the player’s to get ready for the game on Thursday night after playing on Sunday afternoon or evening. The Seahawks played the Green Bay Packer’s in the 4 pm primetime NFL matchup on Sunday, December 11, 2016. This has obviously been talked about by players, and Sherman is just the one to bring up the criticism in public.
Maybe it is better for the NFL to look at another day to play football games on, maybe Saturday night, that would probably give the bodies of player’s adequate enough time to recover and ensure a better and more competitive game. It is time for the NFL to end Thursday Night Football for good.
