NFL Network Adds Five Thursday Night Games

by Bruce Raffel on Feb 9, 2012 6:00 PM EST

NFL Network will televise five additional regular-season games in 2012 as part of its Thursday Night Football package, NFL Commissioner ROGER GOODELL announced recently.

The Thursday Night Football schedule on NFL Network will now feature 13 games, all on Thursdays, from Weeks 2-15 (skipping Week 12). In previous years, the NFLN slate included at least one Saturday night game. NBC will televise the Thursday night game on Thanksgiving in Week 12, in addition to the NFL Kickoff game.

"Adding these games to the NFL Network schedule will give more players, teams, and cities the primetime stage," Commissioner Goodell said. "Our fans can now get an early start on the NFL weekend in the season’s first 15 weeks."

With the expansion of the Thursday Night Football schedule, all 32 NFL teams will now play at least one primetime game in 2012. In addition, every club will play on one Thursday following a Sunday game.

Also in 2012, NFL Network will unveil a new Spanish-language NFL RedZone channel. NFL RedZone, produced by NFL Network, debuted in 2009 and whips around to every NFL game on Sunday afternoons, delivering the touchdowns and most exciting moments as they happen. The channel keeps fans up-to-date in real time, switching from game to game with live look-ins, highlights and a chance to see the important plays.

Thursday Night Football averaged a record 6.2 million viewers in 2011 (not including over-the-air stations) – topping the average playoff viewership of other sports on cable. TNF has doubled average viewership from its inaugural season in 2006 (3.1 million viewers).

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Another night of football starting in week two?

I’m all for it

aka 'Rexx'

by Bruce Raffel on Feb 9, 2012 6:03 PM EST reply actions

I love the idea of more football. But I hate the idea of crappy match-ups. Thursday night games tend to be let-downs. They need to make the Thurday night games just as marquee as the Sunday and Monday night ones in order for this to be successful.

Editor at Baltimore Beatdown - SB Nation Baltimore Ravens Blog
A.K.A "Baltimore Warrior"

by Zachary Beard on Feb 9, 2012 6:19 PM EST up reply actions

Thursday match-ups may be bad, but that ain’t shit compared to Monday match-ups. I couldn’t pick a top five of Monday match-ups since the switch to ESPN.

Can I get some hot sauce for my doughnut?

by FrankWyt on Feb 12, 2012 7:50 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah I’m not sure why the thursday and monday night games have been so horrible. If anything those should be the matchups of the week and some weeks they were literally the worst game scheduled that week.

On Ed Reed:
"I’ve told him to his face many times, ‘You’re the greatest safety ever to play the game,’"
"We all learn from each other, but we all learn most from him."
- Troy Polamalu

by AV23 on Feb 15, 2012 1:43 PM EST up reply actions

I hate Thursday night games

I think teams should only have to play them coming off a bye. 3 days (2 for the road team) is not sufficient time to prepare for an NFL game. The quality of the game is often watered down on these short weeks, not for me.

by YeahDonnie on Feb 9, 2012 6:22 PM EST up reply actions