The National Football League has always had a stranglehold over Sundays and Thanksgiving Day since its inception as the American Professional Football Association in 1920. In those times, it was a necessity that professional games get scheduled a day later to not compete with the popularity of college football. Even today, with the NFL long established as the most popular sports league in the United States, it allows fans of the sport to watch their local college team one day of the weekend before viewing their local professional team the next day. President John F. Kennedy signed the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 into law on September 30th of that year, which created the long-term practice of blacking out professional football games in favor of high school games on Friday and college games on Saturday. This act also created the blackout rules for home teams and their broadcasting market, but it only made a long-standing football tradition legally binding. Even in the 1920s, the NFL experimented with playing on Thursday rather than scheduling games on the same day as high school and college programs.

Now, the NFL has somewhat circumvented this ruling by scheduling playoff and regular season games late in the season on Saturday, well after the NCAA football regular season has wrapped up. This practice goes back to the very first season of the NFL when it was still the APFA, but still, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 opened the door for potential primetime games and gameday scheduling expansion. Pete Rozelle, NFL Commissioner from 1960 to 1989, also envisioned airing one game in primetime and had the Lions and Packers play on a Monday night in the 1964 season. While the NFL had one Monday night game a season in 1966 and 1967 and two Monday night games a season in ’68 and ’69, it wasn’t until they partnered with ABC in 1970 for the still-running Monday Night Football program that playing on Monday for a primetime audience became a norm. Even after affirming Monday as an additional gameday, Thursday remained on the table.

The Lions have hosted Thanksgiving Day games since 1934, while the Dallas Cowboys have also hosted games on Thanksgiving Day since 1966. Even still, the NFL added a third primetime game on Thanksgiving Day featuring the remaining 30 teams on a rotational basis in 2006, the same season they debuted Thursday Night Football. The NFL scheduled only eight games for Thursday Night Football that year, five if you want to get technical, as they also played three Saturday games under the Saturday Night Football moniker. By 2012, Thursday Night Football expanded to practically the entire season, and any games scheduled for a Saturday, such as Christmas Day, became branded as special edition NFL games. Of course, since 2002, the NFL has also chosen to host the NFL Kickoff Game on the Thursday following Labor Day.

With this approach to historical consistency, one would assume fans have embraced an additional game day on the schedule. However, Thursday Night Football hasn’t received as well a reception as Monday Night Football, with complaints lobbied at the NFL for it being an NFL Network exclusive package during its debut season. Even as the NFL continued to expand Thursday Night Football‘s carriage from the NFL Network to major television networks such as CBS, NBC, and Fox, and now breaking into the streaming world with Amazon Prime Video, the reception hasn’t risen above lukewarm. Indeed, last season’s ratings started pretty well¹, especially considering they were abruptly taking over the Thursday Night Football franchise and beginning their 11-year contract a year sooner² than initially announced. However, a string of sloppy games between mediocre teams led to consecutive games³ with much lower ratings⁴, and Thursday Night Football was right back to square one.

It’s not as if Thursday Night Football hasn’t been the subject of cancellation rumors before. While the NFL shot those rumors down at the time, consecutive seasons of disappointing ratings across different media rights packages make one wonder if the NFL ever has or is now considering ending the Thursday Night Football brand. Former players, such as Thursday Night Football pre-game and postgame analyst Richard Sherman, have stated their dislike for the brand⁶, citing increased chance of injuries and the fatigue of a short week leading to sloppy play; both perfectly valid reasons to call for an end of a third regular gameday.

Of course, the NFL’s health and safety report from several years ago⁷ cited only 4.8 injuries on average on Thursdays compared to 6.9 on Sundays and Mondays. These statistics obfuscate the issue of Thursday games increasing the wear-and-tear and general chance of injury; it’s more about the fatigue and soreness adding additional stress on the body than it is getting injured on that specific day. Also, with one game a week, three on Thanksgiving, a much smaller sample size than the 14 or 15 games on Sunday and Monday, a 2.1 higher injury average isn’t unexpected.

What does the NFL do, then? Amazon is a technology company raking in a twelve-figure revenue, and the NFL makes elven-figures in revenue⁸; these companies have money to spend to try and correct issues with the Thursday Night Football brand. They’ve already taken measures to this, as the NFL made flexing Sunday afternoon games to Thursday night an option⁹ to remove lackluster matchups from their and Amazon’s primetime game after the owners approved a rule allowing teams to play two Thursday games on short weeks. Flexing lackluster games is a sensible first step from an entertainment point of view; however, the NFL must balance the Thursday Night Football schedule better from the beginning of the season while ensuring those teams have a realistic recovery period between games. I’m all for one more primetime matchup during the week, especially one with an already-established history of games on that day, but the NFL and Amazon need to get in front of this now before ratings sink any further. If I had to make changes, I’d cut Thursday Night Football back down to eight games, have Thursday Night Football start during week two, and then have the odd-numbered weeks be off-weeks from Thursday games, with the Thursday Night Football games ending in week 16. These changes are unlikely, but if you’re the NFL, at what point do you make market changes to this brand as an exclusive streaming package broadcasting your kick-off into the weekend?

Editor’s Notes

1. Sports Illustrated – 9/22/2022 – Thoughts on Amazon Prime Video’s Debut Rating for ‘Thursday Night Football’
2. CNBC – 3/18/2021 – SPORTS NFL finalizes new 11-year media rights deal, Amazon gets exclusive Thursday Night rights
3. Sports Media Watch – 10/2022 – Second-straight TNF snoozer hits new season-low
4. The Big Lead – 10/25/2022 – Amazon’s Thursday Night Football Ratings Are Plummeting
5. Variety – 11/28/2016- NFL Denies Speculation About ‘Thursday Night Football’ Ending Amid Ratings Slump
6. The Player’s Tribune -12/15/2016 – Why I Hate Thursday Night Football
7. NBC Sports/Pro Football Talk – 1/29/2015 – NFL health and safety report says concussions, ACLs are down
8. CNN Business – 4/19/2018 – Premier League revenues hit record high $6.4 billion
9. CBS Sports – 3/28/2023 – Thursday Night Football: NFL approves allowing teams to play two games on short weeks, tables flex scheduling