Thursday night football has been a key part of the NFL schedule for nearly 10 years, but that might not last much longer. For an NFL fan, that’s not a bad thing.
“Nobody really watches it,” said senior Thomas Neumeyer.
With ratings going down, the National Football League is looking for answers, and they may have found the problem in Thursday games. The current contract that the NFL has with CBS and NBC guarantees Thursday games through the end of the 2017 season; but until that time comes, the league will remain committed to keeping Thursday night for football.
“I think [Thursday night football] is here for good,” said Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
The problem with ratings might not lie with Thursday games, but eliminating them could still be a solution. The main issue is that there aren’t enough big games. Every team is forced to play at least one game on a Thursday every season, which forces otherwise solid schedules to be changed. This leads to bad matchups, as some key names in the sport have pointed out.
“When you think of an early Sunday window, a late Sunday window, a Sunday night window, a Monday night window, a Thursday night window,” said former head coach John Madden. “They all need good games, and there aren’t enough good teams.”
With a limited number of quality games, the league wants to ensure that there is at least one high-stakes game on at any given time, especially when the most people are watching. Thursday nights just aren’t one of those times, so it’s hard to justify putting a big game on during one. An exception of course is Thanksgiving, but even if the NFL did away with Thursday nights, it’s likely that they would keep that one.
“It’s hard to stay up for a football game when you have school the next day,” said sophomore Shane King. “You just can’t do it.”
Hardcore fans still want to watch as many games as possible, and having too many on at once won’t allow them to do that, so the league is forced to find a middle ground.
The most obvious time that people are able to watch TV is the weekend, and it may be time for the NFL to make Friday part of their weekend. Football fans at WS are looking forward to a change, and it can’t come soon enough.
“They need to get rid of it,” said Neumeyer. “The teams don’t have enough time to prepare.”