A few days ago Hall of Fame coach video game character John Madden torched Thursday Night Football. "Something has to be done about Thursday Night Football," he said. "It just doesn’t work. It’s not only a fan thing, it’s a team thing. It’s a safety thing. It’s a competitive thing. It doesn’t work. I know about money, and I know about business. Maybe you have to tweak stuff a little more. To help teams, maybe you get a bye the week before." His criticism wasn't all that unique, as people have cited safety concerns, an oversaturation of primetime games, boring matchups, and lopsided contests for years to criticize the NFL's Thursday night product since it debuted about a decade ago. Madden was simply a prominent name that lent his voice to the growing number of people pissing on the extra primetime game.
Now, according to a source that talked to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL is considering not starting these games until Thanksgiving, or even totally axing Thursday Night Football altogether. The source stated that the reason for the NFL making a move is because the money that the league makes from Thursday Night isn't enough to risk airing so many games that the public loses interest (which also shows how seriously the NFL is taking their lower TV ratings problem).
Currently the NFL has deals with CBS and NBC that go through next season, so any significant change won't occur until 2018 at the earliest.
To those of you actually watching on a consistent basis, this may be a pretty big bummer (though it's not like it's confirmed yet). However, with Netflix, Amazon, cable, On-Demand, internet streams, Hulu—and the outdoors—we have faith that you can find something else to do with your evening.
