Thursday Night Football: NFL approves allowing teams to play two games on short weeks, tables flex scheduling

“Thursday Night Football” may have more compelling games on its schedule next season but we won’t find out for sure until May. NFL owners on Tuesday at the league meetings tabled the vote on flexing ‘Thursday Night Football’ games for 2023.

The main purpose of passing the flex plan would be to eliminate Thursday night games between losing teams. If the plan passes, the NFL would be permitted to shift Sunday afternoon games to Thursday night from weeks 14-17 with 15 days notice. 

While that change is still being discussed, the owners did approve a rule allowing teams to play two Thursday games on short weeks. That means the league is now permitted to schedule teams for Thursday night games after a previous Sunday game on two occasions during the season. Previously, a team could only play one game on Thursday night after playing Sunday. 

While there is optimism that the flex scheduling proposal will pass, there are reasons to believe that it could be voted down by the owners. NFL coaches, for one, are not fans of schedule changes, especially during the season. Safety also becomes a concern as teams could be asked to play more games on short weeks. 

Amazon’s first season with “Thursday Night Football” drew an average viewership of 9.6 million, according to Neilsen. While that is a solid number, it was a 46 percent decline from the previous season when Thursday night games were broadcast on Fox and NFL Network. Games that did not have significant playoff implications may have contributed to the decline in viewership. 

There’s also the issue of fans who purchase tickets well in advance of their game. The possibility of more games being flexed may cause more hesitation from fans who are considering purchasing tickets ahead of the game they plan on attending. 

For a proposal to pass, it must receive 75 percent of the vote, meaning that 24 of the NFL’s 32 owners must vote in favor of the proposal. Given the NFL’s commitment to generating revenue, the safe bet is that the owners will pass the proposal, even if it goes against the wishes of coaches, players and fans.