Thursday Night Football has long been a point of controversy since its creation in 2006. Players and coaches have always expressed their dissatisfaction for the event as they are forced to prepare on a short week and many believe it increases the likelihood of injuries. As for fans, most agree that the quality of games is generally worse on Thursday Night Football.
Last week, at the NFL Owners’ meetings, the owners proposed a new TNF rule that would allow teams to play multiple TNF games a year. Furthermore, the owners talked about a possible flex rule that would allow for games to be flexed into Thursday night on short notice. That change, however, was tabled until May. Meanwhile, it seems more likely that teams will be playing multiple Thursday night games each year.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated Chiefs owner Clark Hunt was one of the 32 NFL owners to vote “yes” for the TNF flex.
"After that, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt stepped in and offered another compromise: Instead of four weeks of TNF flexes in 2023, the league could do only two weeks. Others then asked whether they could get 28 days’ notice and just two flexes for Year 1."
KC Chiefs’ Clark Hunt made the wrong decision on new TNF proposal
Shortly after news broke of the potential change for next season, many players, including Chiefs players, let their voices be heard about their disdain for playing multiple TNF games a season. Among those players were Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Reid, and none other than Patrick Mahomes.
🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/7kIyOGpOvV
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) March 28, 2023
Multiple Thursday night games will be terrible for player safety. If fans want to see a better product on Thursday nights, forcing beat-up players to get suited up for a surprise Thursday night game with no time to really game plan for is not the way to do it
— Justin Reid (@JustinqReid) March 29, 2023
What about the people playing the games???? https://t.co/JWfF3ksf0l
— Marquez V-S (@MVS__11) March 29, 2023
It is pretty significant that Mahomes even commented on the matter as he is typically known for not diving into discourse on controversial issues and is a very down-the-middle guy when it comes to interviews. For the most part, his teammates seem to agree with him. While coaches haven’t said anything yet, it can still be inferred that they’re with their players on this one and also don’t like having less time to prepare.
With that, it looks like Chiefs owner Clark Hunt is on the wrong side with his vote. It’s not surprising that Hunt, along with most billionaire owners, decided that more football on Thursday nights would be good. After all, it makes them more money, but it shows that there is a disconnect between players and owners.
Even worse for Hunt, it’s a bad look for an organization often considered among the healthiest in the entire league. One of the reasons that fans have so much trust in the Chiefs organization is because of the transparency and dedication from everyone top to bottom. Clark Hunt, Brett Veach, Andy Reid, and all the players are bought into the same philosophy and everyone seems to be on the same page.
Given the news of Hunt voting yes on the TNF flex and many Chiefs players’ reactions, there appears to be a small crack in the foundation now that maybe wasn’t there before. Clark Hunt is thought to be one of the better owners in the NFL but this news does cast him in a bit of a negative light.
Ultimately, it shouldn’t be a huge cause for concern for Chiefs fans and Hunt is far from the only owner guilty of voting in favor of more Thursday night games, but it is a bit disappointing to see that Hunt couldn’t take one for the team (literally) and advocate for his players.