Thursday Night Football Could Be Safer

Thursday Night Football: Is it safe for NFL Players?

The NFL is currently trying to make the game of football safer for players. Lately, the big focus has been on cutting down injuries, especially long term injuries. This is why they continue to add new rules to the game that us fans think are ridiculous. No hitting a QB in the pocket below the knees. No leading with your helmet, no hitting a defenseless receiver. No leading with the crown of your helmet, etc... I understand the logic behind most of the new rules and agree with a lot of them. The game has gotten pretty violent this last decade or so with players getting faster and stronger. So I personally, am glad that they have decided to do something about it.

But it gets a little confusing when you hear about the NFL’s player safety stance and then watch them make players play on Thursday nights. Merely 4 days after going at it full speed, these guys are asked to hit the field again before fully recuperating from the last game.

I can understand the NFL’s position. Let’s give the fans as much football as we can. I for one, love watching NFL football on Thursday nights. In my opinion it’s a great idea. Sunday and Monday night isn't enough. It’s bad enough that we only get 6 months of football as it is. So I am grateful for the NFL’s position on giving us as much as possible. Although as a person that understands the game, I think it is a bit much on the players’ bodies to endure so much physical punishment in a game and then turn around and do it again just a few days later.

So how can the NFL continue to make the game safer without sacrificing Thursday Night?

Well, here’s an idea.

Right now, we currently have 9 weeks of bye weeks. Meaning, bye weeks don’t start until Week 4 and they end Week 12. So weeks 1-3 and 13-17 have no teams on bye. My thought is to shorten that; making it 8 weeks of bye weeks. So start the Bye weeks during week 5 and end them week 12. Now we would have weeks 1-4 and 13-17 no teams on bye. Well that didn't fix anything did it?

Here’s where Thursday Night Football comes into play.

4 teams would go on bye each week. Those 4 teams would come back from bye week and play on Thursday night. So we would now have 2 games on Thursday night. What’s going to happen is the Bye weeks are going to get shortened. Instead of having a full week off, teams would now have only a week and a half off.  Doesn't sound too cool for the players does it? Their losing time for themselves. True, but let’s not forget, after that Thursday night game, they don’t play again for at least another 10 days. So what we have is a team is actually playing 1 time in a 21 day period. The good thing is that they've still only managed to miss 1 week of football.

For example, let's use the Jets for instance. Let's say that the Jets' bye week is week 6. What would happen under this proposal is that the jets would play on Sunday or Monday Night during week 5. They won't play at all during week 6 but will return to action Thursday night for week 7. They won't play again until Sunday or Monday Night of week 8. So from week 5 to their next game during week 7, they wouldn't have played a game for 10 or 11 days depending on if their last game was Sunday or Monday Night. After their week 7's Thursday Night game, they won't play again for another 10 or 11 days depending on if they return to action Sunday or Monday Night.

It sounds like a lot of football being missed but I couldn't possibly see players having a problem with it. Especially if a team had a really important player that would need a good 3 weeks to heal. If that injury were to happen around your bye week time, you would only miss 1 game.

For players complaining about their extra 3 or 4 days off being taken away, explain to them that they are not being taken away, they are simply being shifted around for player safety.

The purpose for four teams taking the week off is to allow every team a chance to play on Thursday Night and to allow every team the opportunity to take advantage of this proposed schedule. Besides, having an option for Thursday Night really wouldn't be a bad thing. For example: This year's week 14 Thursday Night match-up on December 5 is between the Houston Texans and the Jacksonville Jaguars. I can honestly say that I would love to have a second option to this game.

Unfortunately, there is a down side to this proposal. Currently, there are Thursday Night Football games that run from week 1 through week 16 with week 17 being the only week with no Thursday Night game. Under this proposal, that would do away with half of the football season's Thursday Night Football. So there would a sacrifice.

If the NFL is indeed serious about player safety (And I do believe they are), then they should really look into a proposal like this. Maybe a tweak here or there wouldn't hurt. Because under there current structure, they are not doing everything they can for player safety...

And I for one, would hate to see the end of Thursday Night Football.