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Anquan Boldin: "The League Is Covering Their Butts"

  

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  1. 1. Thursday Night Games: Good or Bad?

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http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/49ers-receiver-anquan-boldin-nfl-safety-league-covering-162845000--nfl.html

 

San Francisco 49ers receiver Anquan Boldin has witnessed the NFL’s efforts to make the game safer.

 

The NFL has become vigilant about eliminating unnecessary hits to the helmet. Horse-collar tackles, which were once legal, was outlawed. Each team also has a separate independent physician to assist players and team doctors on return–to–practice decisions after being removed from a game because of a concussion. The NFL has also partnered with USA Football to launch “Heads Up Football,” a program designed to ensure that youth football coaches are trained and certified in proper tackling techniques, as well as concussion and hydration education.

 

Yet, Boldin is not buying the league’s efforts.

“I think the league is covering their butt to be honest with you," c/o the San Jose Mercury News.

 

Boldin shared his sentiments during a recent online chat and explained his skepticism:

“But there are some things that just don't make sense to me,” Boldin said. “I mean if you're so concerned about player safety then why do you have every team in the league playing on Thursday night when they just competed on a Sunday, knowing how difficult it is for guys to get back to being healthy after playing on Sunday? Guys really don't feel like they're back till probably Thursday or Friday to prepare for that next week.”

 

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I'm not a fan of them and when we played the Bills on a Thursday a few weeks back, based on all the injuries in that game, you can see the short week takes its toll.

 

It also sucks when your team plays on Thursday and your weekend is sort of shot. I still watch football on Sunday regardless, but it's weird when my team isn't playing.

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Thursday night games are idiotic. The competitive advantage of the home team is way too big. The away team wins 6.8% less often than normal Sunday/Monday games, and that's despite the fact that among the 55 Thursday games than had been played when USA Today looked at the numbers last year, 47% of the time the road team had the better record coming in (29% of the time they had a worse record, and 24% of the time they had the same record).

 

If road teams are only winning 36% of the time even though they're the better team more often than not based on W-L records, you know that the competitive advantage in play is too steep. I think these games should be done away with. And I firmly believe that as the NFL seeks to increase revenue in this way, they will hurt it in the long run by damaging their product.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2012/10/19/thursday-games-home-teams-visitors-nfl-short-week/1644223/


I'm not a fan of them and when we played the Bills on a Thursday a few weeks back, based on all the injuries in that game, you can see the short week takes its toll.

 

It also sucks when your team plays on Thursday and your weekend is sort of shot. I still watch football on Sunday regardless, but it's weird when my team isn't playing.

 

This is a good point too. Thursday night football keeps players off the field. How often do you think an injured player is held out of a game on Thursday night that they would have otherwise played if that game came 3 days later?

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From those who like TNF, I'd be interested to hear why.

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From those who like TNF, I'd be interested to hear why.

 

I like it as a neutral fan.

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From those who like TNF, I'd be interested to hear why.

 

I like it as a neutral fan.

 

 

Fair enough. But even as a neutral fan, I personally don't like going into a game knowing that one team has a distinct (some might say unfair) advantage.

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I love them, but I do agree that they probably should be done away with.

 

There's nothing quite like having something to look forward to after work on Thursday. It makes the week go a lot faster. The disparity has to change, though. Arizona shouldn't beat Seattle yet--they're better, but not quite there--but they're going to win tomorrow night just because of the short week and being at home.

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I kind of taught myself not to hate the matchups because it's football getting discussed more by having the extra game, but from the time they started doing them weekly that season I thought it really felt like the energy in the games really didn't match the hype of the possibility of having more great football played.

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I didn't answer the poll because I'm somewhere in the middle. I enjoy having NFL football to watch on Thursdays, but only when it's not my team. When the Eagles play, I hate it for reasons others (especially NaTaS) have mentioned.

 

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards: NFL football should only be played on Thursdays once a year.

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I didn't answer the poll because I'm somewhere in the middle. I enjoy having NFL football to watch on Thursdays, but only when it's not my team. When the Eagles play, I hate it for reasons others (especially NaTaS) have mentioned.

 

The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards: NFL football should only be played on Thursdays once a year.

 

Twice man. I don't know if you want to get rid of the kickoff game or thanksgiving, but either is wrong.

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I love them, but I do agree that they probably should be done away with.

 

There's nothing quite like having something to look forward to after work on Thursday. It makes the week go a lot faster. The disparity has to change, though. Arizona shouldn't beat Seattle yet--they're better, but not quite there--but they're going to win tomorrow night just because of the short week and being at home.

Your continued insistence on teams being better and still losing is honestly getting annoying.

 

Sometimes, good teams play bad, its not because of the refs or anything else, they just lay an egg.

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I hate the Thursday night games. I think what Boldin is saying is probably true about players not being 100% until Thursday or Friday. You can see it in a lot of TNF games, the guys on the field sometimes just look absolutely gassed and get injured a lot easier. That's probably a stretch on the injury deal though. I don't think there are more injuries on Thursdays than any other night of the week they play.

 

I've never liked TNF, and I just never will probably. Line them up on Sundays with one team playing Mondays, the old way never bothered anyone. Hell, TNF when the season was winding down (The final 4 or 5 weeks) didn't bother anyone anyway. Doing it all year though just causes trouble, players get run down!

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I kind of want to move the TNF game to Friday night. Have a NFL game on Friday night, a game on Saturday night, and then a late late Sunday night game like we just had a few weeks ago. So NFL football is on 4 days a week and gives the players time to rest so they don't have to play these TNF games.

 

I know this won't happen because of college football but this would be my ideal schedule for the NFL.

Edited by BradyFan81

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Twice man. I don't know if you want to get rid of the kickoff game or thanksgiving, but either is wrong.

 

Good call. I forgot about the first game of the year. :yao:

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Hmm. After thinking about this some more, I think that Kemp's stats, while factually correct, could easily be misleading.

 

A) Records do not necessarily mean that the away team is better.

 

But mainly

 

B) A lot of division games are scheduled on TNF and you can toss the records for division games.

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Hmm. After thinking about this some more, I think that Kemp's stats, while factually correct, could easily be misleading.

 

A) Records do not necessarily mean that the away team is better.

 

But mainly

 

B) A lot of division games are scheduled on TNF and you can toss the records for division games.

 

Obviously there are cases when the team with the better record is actually the lesser team. However, that's why I said "more often than not." Because the majority of the time better teams will have better records.

 

But I think you're going to be hard pressed to get around the rather obvious trend that the home team has a stronger than normal advantage on the short week that TNF produces.

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I love them, but I do agree that they probably should be done away with.

 

There's nothing quite like having something to look forward to after work on Thursday. It makes the week go a lot faster. The disparity has to change, though. Arizona shouldn't beat Seattle yet--they're better, but not quite there--but they're going to win tomorrow night just because of the short week and being at home.

 

Orly now.

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It seems I'm in the minority.

 

Anquan Boldin is a millionaire. Is it to much to ask of him to play one Thursday night game a season? I don't think so. And for the guys who aren't millionaires, you still have a nice paycheck. If you want to keep it, which you do you might as well just get used to it.

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It seems I'm in the minority.

 

Anquan Boldin is a millionaire. Is it to much to ask of him to play one Thursday night game a season? I don't think so. And for the guys who aren't millionaires, you still have a nice paycheck. If you want to keep it, which you do you might as well just get used to it.

 

If it is shown that there is no extra competitive advantage for the home team on short weeks, I'm with you.

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I loathe TNF games. And has there been a good TNF game.... like ever?

 

Just get rid of them. Thursday night CFB holds me over just fine lol.

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