Eagles’ A.J. Brown wishes NFL would get rid of ‘Monday Night Football,’ and here’s why

The Eagles are coming off a prime-time upset on “Monday Night Football.” And if it were up to star wide receiver A.J. Brown, they’d never play another Monday night game again. In fact, no one would.

While the Eagles have a full week to prepare for their next matchup, a Christmas Day game against the Giants that also falls on Monday, Brown told DraftKings on Thursday that the physical toll of short weeks usually outweighs the game’s national appeal.

“It most definitely does, honestly,” he said. “Because it’s a short week and then right after the game you only have a certain amount of time just for your body to recover, and it speeds up the process, and that adds … wear and tear with practice. So it gets difficult. The Monday night games, I think they shoulda took (them) out. I know it’s cool, everybody watching you on Monday night, but the turnaround after that, it’s difficult, especially if you leave the game a little banged up.”

The sentiment has been shared by countless other players over the years, usually as it pertains to the turnaround between typical Sunday games and the NFL’s Thursday night contests, which are even closer together. But neither Brown nor any fellow advocates should expect a change anytime soon. The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NFL Players Association dictates the current schedule and runs through 2030, and this year the league’s new media rights agreement has only expanded the focus on Monday night contests, with ESPN broadcasting a multigame “Monday Night Football” slate.