SNF, MNF, TNF

[DetDannyWilliams]

now that Rex is our head coach do you think we will be playing in some Sunday Night Football, Monday Night & Thursday night games?

[justasportsfan]

When we play jets or pats

[pmoon6]

I hope not. I hate night games.

[YardRat]

I would guess we could get two night games.

[feldspar]

I thought every team was guaranteed to have a Thursday Night game, or at least every team is guaranteed to not have to play MORE THAN ONE Thursday Night game.

Think about it...playing on THAT short of a week. If every team (or nearly every team) has to do it once, and only once, it sort of levels the playing field, so to speak. If you look it up, NO TEAM played on Thursday Night more than once this year. They had Thursday Night games through week 15, so 30 different teams played on Thursday Night. Then in week 16, after regular college football is over, there were 2 Saturday Night games. The two teams that didn't have a Thursday Night game played in those 2 Saturday Night games, along with a couple of other teams that did have Thursday Night games, of course. I think that's how it's geared to work every year.

But yeah, I think the Bills will get a Monday Night game when they face the Jets, probably. Either that or a Sunday Night game, but I figure they'll get a Monday Night game. Maybe they'll get a couple of Prime-time games...we'll see. But I'd be really surprised if they don't get at least one. The Bills are viewed as a potential team on the rise, and you know the NFL tries to set up Prime-time games with big story-lines.

[notacon]

Who cares?

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Who cares?

Players care.

99.99% of professional sports players like to be on the center stage under bright lights. It's a powerful recruiting tool,

[IlluminatusUIUC]

I thought every team was guaranteed to have a Thursday Night game, or at least every team is guaranteed to not have to play MORE THAN ONE Thursday Night game.

Think about it...playing on THAT short of a week. If every team (or nearly every team) has to do it once, and only once, it sort of levels the playing field, so to speak. If you look it up, NO TEAM played on Thursday Night more than once this year.

That depends on how you define TNF. The Packers and Seahawks appeared in the Thursday opener and then appeared again later in the league schedule, though the opener comes after a meaningless preseason game where the starters barely play so the rest issue doesn't count.

Then you have the teams from Thanksgiving who also appeared on TNF (Cowboys vs Bears) only a few weeks later.

IMO TNF is terrible and the short rest football is awful to watch. If you must have Thursday games, have the opener, then pause until week 5 and have BOTH teams on Thursday coming off their bye week.

Another option would be to move it to Tuesday night football so there are 4 days between games rather than three.

[feldspar]

That depends on how you define TNF. The Packers and Seahawks appeared in the Thursday opener and then appeared again later in the league schedule, though the opener comes after a meaningless preseason game where the starters barely play so the rest issue doesn't count.

Then you have the teams from Thanksgiving who also appeared on TNF (Cowboys vs Bears) only a few weeks later.


You make some really good points here that I wasn't aware of.

I checked out the the nfl site just now. They didn't even include the Thursday Night opener or the Thanksgiving games on their "Thursday Night" schedules, even though they obviously took place on Thursdays.

http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2014/TNF

But, like you said, the Thursday Night opener didn't really matter; in fact, that's probably the one you want. Also, considering Thanksgiving, every team DID have a Thursday Night game. And like you said, a couple of teams really did have two, but the same teams did it the same weeks.

Did not know those details.

I kinda like Thursday night games as a concept, but there really were some stinkers in there this year.

[Scumbag College]

bills v jets monday or thursday at some point this year.

[Historian]

I think the Bills get a Monday, a Sunday night and a Thursday.

Two of which will be at home.

[casdhf]

Thursday night game, week one, Buffalo at New England.

[justasportsfan]

Thursday night game, week one, Buffalo at New England.

Do you think that would be a bigger story than Bills @ Jets ?

[trapezeus]

thursday for sure as everyone gets one. and frankly, the NFL network needs to get matchups that are interesting to get better ratings.

monday or sunday night games would have to be early where the hype is there. a mid season game would be reliant that the bills relaly could move forward and take the next step. there is no guarantee of that.

this year for whatever reason, the night games were pretty boring.

[notacon]

Players care.

99.99% of professional sports players like to be on the center stage under bright lights. It's a powerful recruiting tool,

I don't believe that it's a recruiting tool for a second. Money does that.

Sure, they may love the attention. It's not an end in and of itself. The team does well, they'll get their chance on the "big stage".

[notacon]

Or, I should say...I don't want the player that can be recruited because of Sunday/Monday night performances.

[sudzy]

Thursday night game, week one, Buffalo at New England.

Hope not. That mean NE wins the Super Bowl. The opening week Thursday night game is the Champs at home.

[Ed]

The NFL really likes having division games on Thursday nights, so Bill at Jets for Rex's big return to NY is probably a good candidate. Personally, I wish that they would only do non-conference games on Thursday night.

My guess is that the Bills will get one Monday night game and one Thursday night game. One on the road and one at home.

[DraftBoy]

Bills @ Jets could be an easy pick for the league.

[swiper]

You people all act like Buffalo suddenly matters more to the rest of the world.

[Rob on the Job]

Ugh. Night games.

Well, if at the end of the first Bills-Pats game of 215, Coach Rex walks across the field and drive his foot into the groin of His Satanic Majesty (aka Bill Belichick), I guaran-damn-tee you that ALL of the Bills games will be in prime time from that day on.

[Ed]

You people all act like Buffalo suddenly matters more to the rest of the world.
I think in the NFL world they do matter more now. Maybe not a lot, but certainly more. Rex Ryan is a big name with a big personality that draws attention. Here in Denver I've heard a lot more talk about the Rex Ryan hire both locally and nationally than any other coaching hire or vacancy. We're going to get a Thursday night game no matter who we hired, but I think Rex is worth one more prime time game.