On Tuesday, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman used a colorful, comical word to describe Thursday Night Football. He has since reiterated his views in an essay for The Players Tribune.
Short-week football is, in Sherman’s view, a poopfest.
He explains the daily activities of a normal work week, contrasting that with what happens during a short week. But the fact remains that, for every player who complains about playing on a Thursday after playing on a Sunday, there are one or two (or maybe four or five) who don’t mind playing on Thursday because they get an easier week of work before the Thursday game and a mini-bye on the back end.
Sherman ultimately places the blame for Thursday Night Football solely on the NFL.
“I guess this is what happens when you have people in suits who have never played the game at this level dictating the schedule,” Sherman writes. “I’d like to put Roger Goodell in pads for a late game on a Sunday, in December, in Green Bay, on the frozen tundra — then see what time he gets to the office on Monday morning, knowing that he would have to suit up again on Thursday.”
The flaw in Sherman’s argument comes from his failure to acknowledge that the NFL Players Association agreed to a full season of short-week football, with every team doing it once per year. Sherman currently sits on the NFLPA’s Executive Committee. And the labor deal could be amended at any time to remove Thursday Night Football from the relationship.
Here’s the problem. TNF generates money. A lot of money. Beyond the $450 million paid each year by CBS and NBC collectively for the right to broadcast some of the games, Thursday Night Football began a decade ago as a device for breathing life (and money) into NFL Network. With regular-season game content on NFLN, the property instantly became more profitable.
If TNF goes away, all that money -- more than $1 billion, in the estimation of the NFLPA -- goes away. Beyond the challenge of replacing that money ($500 million for the players, which translates to $15.625 million per team and, ultimately, $294,000 per player), the NFL would want a major concession from the NFLPA to balance out the elimination of Thursday Night Football.
Or the concession could be avoided and TNF could be regarded as a once-per-year obligation that entails, on average, $300,000 per player for the burden of playing with only three days off in between games.
Coupled with the easy week of work before Thursday’s game and the mini-bye after it, putting the franchise in dollars and cents likely will make even more players willing to tolerate one short-week game per year.
