Roger Goodell says everyone is wrong and ‘Thursday Night Football’ is actually great

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd on FOX Sports Radio Wednesday that “almost by every barometer,” Thursday Night Football games are better than other games.

Goodell noted that while some of those games aren’t as competitive as others, statistics show that there are fewer penalties and turnovers on Thursday nights. He said that makes for a more enjoyable game.

“Almost by every barometer, the quality of the game is better on Thursday night,” Goodell said.

The statement was in response to Cowherd’s question about player health and safety as it relates to Thursday night games. It’s a quick turnaround from Sunday, and Cowherd noted that players have said that “some old guys still wake up sore” on Thursdays.

Goodell said the league tracks injury data for those games.

“On safety, and we’ve been tracking this every year, there has not been any, any indication or facts or anything else that would indicate the level of injuries are up on Thursday night,” Goodell said.

Some NFL players have voiced their opposition to Thursday night games, including Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who called it an “absolute poopfest.”

“It’s terrible,” Sherman said. “We played, got home at like 1 o’clock in the morning something like that on Monday, and then you got to play again. I mean, congratulations NFL, you did it again. But they’ve been doing it all season so I guess we’re the last ones to get the middle finger.”

Sherman is far from the only one who feels that way, and players’ concerns are generally health and injury-related.

Former Houston Texans running back Arian Foster flat out said the NFL is “putting every player on the football field in danger” with Thursday night games. New York Giants linebacker Jon Beason said that “it shows [the NFL doesn’t] really care about the players.“

Goodell said the league does whatever it can to give players an opportunity to fully recover from injuries and the normal wear and tear from Thursday night games.

He also insisted that players actually like Thursday Night Football.

“But also we hear a lot, and this came up in our negotiations in 2011, that a lot of the players really like it because you have 10 days afterward before the next game,” Goodell said. “So it acts as a sort-of mini-bye, is the term that was used.”

Sherman may not be one of those players.

“They make this huge stance about player safety, then you put the players in tremendous danger,” Sherman said in December.

The league has expanded Thursday Night Football, beginning with eight games in 2011, and working its way up to 14 games this season. Goodell said the scheduling is something the league will continue to look at in the future.