Jets wide receiver Jermaine Kearse watched Thursday night as his former teammate, Richard Sherman, ruptured his Achilles’ tendon. A week earlier, Kearse played in the Thursday night game when the Jets defeated the Bills. He doesn’t like it.
Kearse wants the league to eliminate Thursday games.
“You’re asking guys who play a high volume on one day and literally give it their all on that one day and ask them to recover and try to bounce back in a couple of days,” Kearse said Friday, via Dennis Waszak of the Associated Press. “It’s kind of tough, especially when you’re already dealing with certain stuff from previous weeks that might be nagging or lingering.”
Although the NFL has said it sees no increase in injuries in Thursday games, Kearse, like many players, disagrees.
“This game has a 100 percent injury rate,” Kearse said. “That’s the truth, that’s the facts. . . . You give them a short week like that [on Thursdays], it’s tough.”
Kearse said the NFLPA needs to address the issue during the next Collective Bargaining Agreement meetings.
“I think there definitely needs to be a discussion, for sure,” he said. “Just finding better ways to take care of the players. I mean, guys are putting their bodies on the line, day in and day out.”