Recently,  NFL officials have stated that they will consider pulling or at least reducing the amount of Thursday Night Football games.  The current TV deal runs through the 2017 season, but we could potentially see adjustments after that.

The Denver Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs played in the first ever Thursday night game on Thanksgiving night in 2006.  This game was part of NFL Network’s Run to the Playoffs package, which included five Thursday night games for the last five weeks of the regular season.  This format continued through the 2011 season.

In 2012, NFL Network began airing Thursday night games each week except for weeks 16 and 17.  Additionally, the same format occurred in 2013.

However, in 2014, CBS wanted a piece of the pie.  CBS bought the rights to air eight games for the 2014 season for $275 million.  Therefore,  NFL Network and CBS both aired the first eight Thursday night games of the year.  NFL Network aired the remaining Thursday games.  The NFL extended their contract with CBS for the 2015 season, but the contract was raised to 300 million dollars.

After the 2015 season was over, the NFL was willing to sell the rights to the highest bidder.  Ultimately in February 2016, it was announced that NBC, CBS, and NFL Network would be sharing the rights to air the games.  CBS and NBC each get to air five games, while NFL Network gets the remaining games.  Also,  Twitter received rights to stream ten of the games on the popular app.

Clearly, TV companies want to do anything to stay ahead of their competitors, but the Thursday Night ratings have taken a major tumble throughout the season.  The Week 11 Thursday night game between the Panthers and the Saints saw a 47 percent drop in views compared to the Week 1 Thursday night game.  So, is it time to end Thursday Night Football?

“I’m not a huge fan of Thursday Night Football,” said senior Matt Dugan.  “The Jaguars and Titans should not be playing in a prime time football game.  I think they should at least minimize the amount of games.  I don’t think there needs to be a game every week, but possibly a game every three weeks,” Dugan added.

On the other hand, Tim Tieman doesn’t want to see Thursday Night Football go.

“I think they should keep it.  The ratings are down, but the NFL is great to watch.  It’s better than watching the college football game on Thursday night,” Tieman said.

Personally,  I think the NFL should end Thursday Night Football after the contract expires next season.  I realize that there have been some great games on Thursday night, such as the Miracle in Motown and the Harbaugh brothers’ Thanksgiving Night game, but most of the match-ups are awful.

Additionally, the safety of the players is at risk.  It’s not reasonable for a player to have to play a game on Sunday and then play on Thursday.  I realize the NFL “Color Rush” uniforms were added to spice it up in the past few years, but it’s going to take a lot more than a cool uniform to get me excited about Rams-Buccaneers, Titans-Jaguars, etc.

Regardless, there will be Thursday Night Football next year, but in 2018 we could potentially see the demise or reduction of Thursday Night Football in some fashion.