Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman described the often poorly-played Thursday night games as a “middle finger” from the NFL, calling the weekly contests a “poopfest” as Seattle preps to play the Los Angeles Rams in the last TNF game of the 2016 season.
“It’s terrible,” Sherman said, via ESPN. “We got home like 1 o’clock in the morning, something like that, on Monday, and then you’ve got to play again. Congratulations, NFL, you did it again. But they’ve been doing it all season, so I guess we’re the last ones to get the middle finger.”
The Seahawks played the late afternoon game in Green Bay last Sunday.
“The whole idea of Thursday Night Football is terrible. It’s ludicrous. It’s hypocritical,” Sherman later wrote in The Players Tribune.
Sherman blames the lack of recovery for the players.
“That’s why the quality of play has been so poor on Thursday nights this season,” Sherman said. “We’ve seen blowouts, sloppy play and games that have been almost unwatchable — and it’s not the players’ faults. Their bodies just aren’t ready to play.”
The Seahawks can clinch the NFC West with a win over the Rams, who just fired head coach Jeff Fisher on Monday.
A Thursday night game won’t be helpful for either team, especially this late in the season. The Rams changed leadership to start the short week, while the Seahawks are coming off a 28-point road loss at Lambeau Field.
“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,” Sherman wrote.
No one who has consistently watched the Thursday night games will disagree with Sherman. And there’s no questioning how difficult it must be on players to perform at a high level with so little recovery and practice time during the week.
Thursday Night Football needs to go. But until the games stop making the league money, it’s hard to see the NFL vacating a revenue stream—even if more players like Sherman are vocal about the obvious issue.
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