Players’ complaints about Thursday Night Football have intensified recently, particularly after Thursday Night Football critic Richard Sherman suffered a season-ending injury on a Thursday night. But what about Thanksgiving football?
The NFL has been playing on Thanksgiving for as long as the NFL has existed, and players rarely complained about it. Lions receiver Golden Tate said on PFT Live that he relishes the opportunity to play the early Thanksgiving kickoff each year.
“Over the last few years I’ve felt pretty good going into that week and personally I love the thought of playing on a Thursday, at home for sure,” Tate said. “It’s a chance for me to have all my family come out, watch the ball game, go home, finish up cooking the Thanksgiving dinner, eating, spending more time with them and then watching more football. So for me I love it. I look forward to it every year. But I do understand Richard Sherman’s perspective on this, it is tough on our bodies and it can catch up to you here and there. But I’ve been blessed to be healthy going into that game.”
It is possible that negotiations with the players could result in a reduced Thursday night schedule, but the NFL will never get rid of Thanksgiving football, which is a staple of the holiday and one of the biggest days of the year for the NFL. And players, despite their objections to Thursday nights, do not seem to mind those Thanksgiving games.