Should Teams Playing on Thanksgiving Have a Bye the Sunday Before?

[PromoTheRobot]

If the NFL wants a longer season add a second bye and make sure any team playing Thursday gets one before that game. Heck, they could even do a Wednesday game too.

[Utah John]

The Patriots have several players missing practice because of illness, not injuries, and it's not surprising considering they were playing in cold rain the whole game.  Apparently there's some contagious illness going through the Pats' locker room.  Wouldn't it be a darn shame if several of the Cowboys got whatever is taking down the Patriots?  Considering how much physical contact there is between players, it would be really hard not to pick up something the players on the other team have.  

1 minute ago, PromoTheRobot said:

If the NFL wants a longer season add a second bye and make sure any team playing Thursday gets one before that game. Heck, they could even do a Wednesday game too.

The only way they could fit in another bye week, creating an 18 week regular season, would be to shorten the preseason.  Which a lot of players and teams want to do, but which means a lot of marginal players don't get a chance to show what they can do.

[Orlando Buffalo]

My ideal version of this is two bye weeks during season and every Thursday game is preceded by a bye week after week 3. I think the extra bye week would improve late season football.

[fansince88]

As long as the home team travels rhe week nefor and the traveling team is home I don't have an issue.

[RevWarRifleman]

2 hours ago, Aussie Joe said:

Just have two byes and give all teams playing on Thursday a bye the previous week..

I'm with you on that.

[stevestojan]

No. 
 

just play football. 
 

and I swear to Christ, mom, have the desserts ready before the end of halftime. 

[Stallions]

3 hours ago, RevWarRifleman said:

Yes, you must be thinking about 1984- 85. Back -to-back 2-14 seasons.  I swear, there were college teams that could have beaten  those Bills.

Vince Ferragamo era - it was awful!

[Nelius]

I don't really care too much but I'd hope they'd ensure that at least one team doesn't get a bye before Thanksgiving, or any Thursday game for that matter. Not sure if that happens but would definitely seem like an unfair advantage.

 

I am expecting a low scoring, possibly sloppy game. Thursday games always seem pretty awful and low scoring, and I'm going against my own fantasy football rule to never start a Thursday QB with Allen this week. I really have nothing to support this but I swear every Thursday game maxes out at about 30 combined points and has a bunch of turnovers.

Edited November 28, 2019 by Nelius

[PUNT750]

NO - NO!!!  It's just a Thursday night football game and this week there are 3!  Show up and be tough.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I would favor getting rid of Thursday games.  But if they are to continue they need to find a way to make every team play one Thursday game and add another bye week.  

[Da webster guy]

So many replies here off topic.  The answer is emphatically YES thats a great idea and painfully sad the league doesn't embrace the idea.

One of the replies was (incorrectly) " well either way you have to play the next sunday"  but thats not true at all.

You get a bye week so you play in 11 days instead of 14, and you play again in 10 days instead of 7.  

So you have two games in exactly 3 weeks, just like a 14 day break and a normal game.  If you do it with every team then it is an equal number, and the original poster is right you will never have a short four day week which the players (and the players union) has complained about heavily for years now.

 

Great idea.  I love Thursday nite football more than Monday nite (duh).  League should do it.

 

And while they're at it, put a goddamn white stripe on the football like college so we can see the muddy.lookin ball better you idiots.

 

Imagine soccer, volleyball or golf with a mud colored ball?   Yeah...we're that far behind.  Still got old guys with sticks and chains (medieval invention) measuring first downs.   They should wear armor and have shields too....

[NoHuddleKelly12]

7 hours ago, HOUSE said:

I remember when the Bills took every Sunday off

Post of the day! You sir, get an extra embossed genuine imitation gold ribbon seal on your certificate suitable for framing! 

[Nextmanup]

It evens out.  It's the same for everyone.

 

 

[Buffalo Barbarian]

11 hours ago, whatdrought said:

Two things: 

 

1- what about every other Thursday game?

 

2- The whole "players were slower and smaller" narrative is so overdone in general (not specifically calling you out). It's more less saying players now take more abuse than Bronco Nagurski and Dick Butkus did in their generation. it just doesn't measure up. 

 

was going to say the first point and definitely the second is true, the game WAS a lot tougher back then.

 

 

[GunnerBill]

9 hours ago, motorj said:

i'd prefer saturday games in place of thurs games

 

Won't happen because of the non-compete with the NCAA. 

 

As for a lot of the negativity towards TNF in general.... I think the teams have adjusted. There was a time when those games were always sloppy and the product was terrible. But Indy @ Houston. 9ers @ Cardinals. Rams @  Seahawks. There have been some really good TNF games this year. 

[ALF]

12 hours ago, ctk232 said:

What was the reason they didn't want to do Friday games? High school football and TV ratings?

 

It's only a day, but I feel like Friday night games would be a more reasonable short week for the players. TNF is only for the money anyway, so it stands to reason Friday night likely wouldn't yield the same ROI as Thursday. But I honestly can't imagine how much less/more lucrative it'd be on either day.

 

To protect fans of college and high school football, Congress also approved language that barred professional games on Fridays and Saturdays during the schools' seasons. The NFL still stays away from those days outside of rare exceptions, like when Christmas falls on a Friday.Dec 15, 2018

[RevWarRifleman]

12 hours ago, wagon127 said:

I'm honestly curious, how realistic do you think it is that the NFL cancels Thursday Night football. Especially after signing a huge TV deal with fox over a year ago. 

Well, I didn't mean that they just up and do away with Thurs games. It was more of an opinion, as far as I was concerned.

[RevWarRifleman]

11 hours ago, Stallions said:

Vince Ferragamo era - it was awful!

Yeh, and there was more than Ferragamo. Remember Joe Dufek? Bruce Mathison?   Terrible!

 

Trivia question: Who was the Bills starting QB when Kelly came out of the defunct USFL & signed with the Bills?

[Steve O]

12 hours ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

My ideal version of this is two bye weeks during season and every Thursday game is preceded by a bye week after week 3. I think the extra bye week would improve late season football.

Not only bye week before Thursday game, but also play the same team next game 11 days later. Home and home against divisional opponent. That way no advantage with the extra rest. That's change number 3 when I'm commissioner. Rule change number 2 is real speed instant replay. If you can't overturn in real speed, the call wasn't incontrovertible. Change number 1 of course is Super Bowl Saturday.

[MarkyMannn]

NFL agrees with the bye b4 Thanksgiving, but only for the Patriots