One of the biggest complaints about Thursday night games has come from players who say they don’t have adequate time to prepare for the upcoming game. As a viewer who tunes into these games, it is quite evident by the quality of play that both teams were impacted by the shortened week.
Without getting rid of the Thursday night game, which I enjoy because it means an extra 3 hours of professional football during the week, I would like to propose the following … have 2 Thursday night games per week. Now before you call me crazy, let me break it down for you.
After week 4, two teams would have a bye during week 5. Week 6 would be the 1st, and for this week only, Thursday night game between the two teams that had a bye. This would give them adequate time to recover from week 4 but also prepare for week 6.
There would be 4 teams on bye during week 6. These teams would then play each other in week 7 & in week 8. This would then force an additional Thursday night game that could be picked up by ESPN giving the fans a choice of which game to watch.
This process would go on for the next 6 weeks, giving 26 of the 32 teams a bye week. The remaining 6 teams would have a bye week the week before Thanksgiving. Those 6 teams, 2 of which would always be Detroit & Dallas, would play on Thanksgiving and then play each other the week after.
What this accomplishes:
· Improved play on Thursday
· Adequate rest leading up to the Thursday game.
· With the exception of the 1st bye week, each team coming off their bye would play someone else coming off their bye on Thursday and then play one of the other two teams who also played on Thursday. This would eliminate the unfairness of having an extra 3 days of rest.
I know this is farfetched and a little out there, but something has to be done about the quality of Thursday Night Football.
All credit of this column is solely Jason Bott, @jbott32
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Shayne Sharpe
Shayne is a Colorado native with a life love of sports. He's been studying and loving this state and their teams for four decades.
No way. It just doesn’t work. Good thinking, but I don’t see it and I don’t know how this would work well. I am so down on the Thursday Night Football experience, Shayne.
Thursday night games should be played the week after a team’s bi week. Teams that play Sunday or Monday and then need to play another on Thursday just aren’t recovered enough to it the opponent as hard.
Plus, bi weeks break a momentum. A Thursday game is less likely to screw with it.
Used to have a old friend called Sensei, miss that kid