Vikings coach Mike Zimmer probably would use a slightly stronger term than “poopfest” when talking about Thursday Night Football. Possibly a word ending in "-show.”
Zimmer doesn’t like the fact that his team has to travel from Minnesota to Los Angeles for a short-week game against the Rams. He said Wednesday that it’s “too far to go for a game during a short week.”
The Vikings traveled on Tuesday, in order to better acclimate to L.A. before the Thursday game.
“It is what it is,’’ Zimmer said. “We go out and play the schedule however they do it. I know the statistics about going to the West Coast on a short week and all of that. Part of the reason we are going out [Tuesday], we did a study on preparing for a game on a short week, all of those things.”
Zimmer added that, in his five seasons with the Vikings, they’ve never had a short-week home game. (In 2016, a Thursday night game at home against the Cowboys came a week after a short-week Thanksgiving Day game at Detroit.) Making the travel burden on the Vikings more conspicuous is the fact that the Rams played at home on Sunday before playing at home again on Thursday.
In situations like this, where one team has to cross a pair of time zones for a short-week game, the home team should start the week by traveling home through a pair of time zones. This would at least balance out the infringement on the total preparation time, forcing both teams to include the hassle of travel within the scant hours they have to prepare for the game.