New CBA will bring Thursday Night Football Every week starting in 2012

[Triumph]

That should be an interesting sale. NFL Network needs the live game package to induce cable companies to carry it, but what if an ABC (or even ESPN again) is also bidding for that package? The NFL is almost bidding against itself here. How high can they go until their own package price makes NFLN a losing proposition?

I think the NFLN will always be a must have because they have rights to Saturday games late in the regular season. NFLN is sold to cable and DirectTV, but I wonder how DirectTV will get the Thursday games when the NFL is selling them as an exclusive product ro cable networks?

 

[Oswlek]

I believe the thinking behind Thursday nights as opposed to Friday nights is Friday nights are traditionally high school football nights.

Yup. And conflict with the NCAA product is why you don't see Saturday games until December.

 

[FCB02062]

Not a fan of the Thursday night game at all. Let's keep it to Sunday/Monday - period. Main reason is I do not like the Thursday game is the competitive advantage/disadvantage it gives the participants. I know the NFL tries to eliminate the advantage/disadvantage in their scheduling, but often it is unavoidable.
There was one season a few years ago in which the Patriots seemed to play an inordinate amount of games against teams coming off a bye or coming off an extra day or two because they played on a Thursday night. It was at the height of their rivalry with Indianapolis and I seem to recall the Patriots played 3 or 4 games against teams off a bye or an extra day whereas Indianapolis played one...
If I need football on a Thursday night, I can watch whatever midmajor college games are on ESPN, etc....

 

[Rob0729]

I think the NFLN will always be a must have because they have rights to Saturday games late in the regular season. NFLN is sold to cable and DirectTV, but I wonder how DirectTV will get the Thursday games when the NFL is selling them as an exclusive product ro cable networks?

If a network like TNT, TBS, USA, or another basic cable network that DirecTV carries buys the package, they will obviously get it. The only way they wouldn't get that package is if a cable network they don't carry gets it, but I can't think of a single cable network that DirecTV doesn't carry that would be able to pony up a billion or more a year for Thursday night games.

Personally, I wonder if the The CW steps up and buys it. It might be too much for them and football fans aren't really their core demo (they gear most of their programming to young women), but the NFL package Fox bought helped to turn them from a joke of a network to the highest rated network. Fox like all the networks, used football to promo the crap out of their programming.

 

[VJCPatriot]

If weekly Thursday night football is the necessary tradeoff for dropping the horrific 18-game regular season schedule idea, I'm all for it.

This +1. And there will only be 16 Thursday night games. So that means if you split that load evenly amongst all the teams, Each team will only get 1 Thursday night game per season. (32 teams/2 teams per game = 16/16 weeks = 1). This is MUCH better than an 18 game season and gives the fans an extra day in the week to watch football.

 

[BlueThunder]

Feel sorry for the people that have to go to work on Friday....:bricks:

 

[Ghost of Ben Dreith]

I think you will also see an inferior product on the field based on the already mentioned lack of prep time but you also need to figure in lack of time to recover from injuries.

I don't like this idea for the league at all. As a Patriot fan, I like it even less....who do you think is going to be showcased more than their share of times? How often are the Pats put on Sunday night/Monday night/flexed out...etc.....to draw in the viewers.

Just a bad idea whose only purpose is to generate cash at the expense of football quality.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Thursday night games are fine by me. Let the games begin!

 

[townes]

If weekly Thursday night football is the necessary tradeoff for dropping the horrific 18-game regular season schedule idea, I'm all for it.

This is exactly how i see it. I love football but i hate the idea of them playing 18 regular season games. Imo it is simply too much football and it would shorten the careers of great players, throw in the play-offs and they would be very close to a half year of serious football and it is too violent for that. If the Thursday night games are the trade-off i'm all for it even if i don't get to see them, which i won't because i work it.

 

[Rob0729]

I think you will also see an inferior product on the field based on the already mentioned lack of prep time but you also need to figure in lack of time to recover from injuries.

I don't like this idea for the league at all. As a Patriot fan, I like it even less....who do you think is going to be showcased more than their share of times? How often are the Pats put on Sunday night/Monday night/flexed out...etc.....to draw in the viewers.

Just a bad idea whose only purpose is to generate cash at the expense of football quality.

They already have Thursday games at least once a year. Have you really watched many Thanksgiving day games and felt that the product was inferior because one or both teams seem to be ill prepared. Personally, I thought the Patriots/Lions Thanksgiving game was one of the more exciting games of the season (at least until the Pats ran away with it in the fourth quarter). If the product gets watered down like that, I am all for it.

It obviously didn't hurt Brady's preparation since he completed 77.8% of his passes for 341 yards, 4 TDs, and 0 INTs.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Looks to me like season ticket holders / local fans are getting the shaft in the deal. It's manageable to schedule (read as sneak in) an extra three day weekend to cover a Monday night game, but THURSDAY ?!?! One more move that shows the local fan doesn't count for much.

It will be a night game. If you're going, take Friday off on the east coast or Thursday off on the west coast... It will probably be scheduled to only happen to teams probably twice a year, once at home and once away...If you're watching at home, try not drinking. It will be over by midnight on the east coast and 9PM on the west coast.

Jeez people - too many of you think you're individual comfort level is the center around which everyone's universe revolves...

 

[MoLewisrocks]

ESPN is now reporting that the Thursday night game issue was not discussed yesterday at the owners meetings and it is proposed to be implemented in 2014 because all the current TV deals run through 2013.

 

[Off The Grid]

I believe the thinking behind Thursday nights as opposed to Friday nights is Friday nights are traditionally high school football nights.

Good point, my good man...

 

[andrewgarrr]

Feel sorry for the people that have to go to work on Friday....:bricks:

8:20 PM EST Starting time
3:06 average NFL game length

11:26 PM ending time.

That rough to get up when going to bed ~ midnight?

 

[Frezo]

Gimme four games on Sunday starting at 10:00 AM EST. They could schedule games of interest to the eastern half of the country. Watch the Pats from 10 to 1, got the rest of the day to yourself. Hard core west coasters could start drinking at 7:00 AM. What's wrong with that?

 

[Ron Sellers]

Feel sorry for the people that have to go to work on Friday....

I guess the NFL should therefore scrap Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football too, correct?

 

[Frick]

All right. Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti night and Thursday is Football.