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NFL considering pulling the plug on Thursday Night Football?

The NFL probably needs to throttle back the Thursday night games. They've put out too much national product. Keep it to six games or so after the college regular season. Thursday Night was nothing more than a revenue grab and a lever to prod cable systems to increase carriage of the NFL Network.

The NFL has no reason to encroach on HS football. The law should remain as it is.
 
seatownmedia said:
Interesting. Had no idea as probably most do not. This seems a bit antiquated, but if that is the law then it is the law. Probably could be overturned with the power of the NFL today, which is perhaps 10X bigger than it was in 1961. But it does explain why NFL Saturday games never happen before December.
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That's fascinating. Count me as one who had no idea that was in there. I need to read the whole thing. No telling what else I'm missing.
 
umfan said:
The NFL probably needs to throttle back the Thursday night games. They've put out too much national product. Keep it to six games or so after the college regular season. Thursday Night was nothing more than a revenue grab and a lever to prod cable systems to increase carriage of the NFL Network.

The NFL has no reason to encroach on HS football. The law should remain as it is.
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I agree on Thursday Night Football--limit the "package" to only the season kickoff (the Thursday before Week 1 Sunday), the three Thanksgiving games, then Thursday nights after Thanksgiving. With the stipulation that the teams involved get a bye week the week before their Thursday night game (plus the six teams playing on Thanksgiving)--meaning that the late-season Thursday night matchups would be determined before the season begins (so there still runs the risk for clunkers).
 
TheBigA said:
I find it's a regional thing. People may play high school and college football in the northeast, but the NFL is the big dog. In the south and mid-west, it's the opposite.
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Even the networks, with their built-in coastal myopia, should be smart enough to know that and not push the NFL for Friday night games. Here in New England, high school football is, by and large, just another extracurricular activity, and college football is something to watch when there's nothing else on or if you're a gambler. Having spent three years in Arkansas, I can tell you that in the South, anyone with that attitude toward the sport would be considered downright un-American, if not alien!
 
I believe the NFL is still barred by law from playing Friday night games, or Saturdays during College Football season.

They had to ask for a change in antitrust law in the late 1950's in order to sign a one-network exclusive TV deal.
As the price for that Congress inserted the bans on competing with college and high-school football.
 
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CTListener said:
Even the networks, with their built-in coastal myopia, should be smart enough to know that and not push the NFL for Friday night games. Here in New England, high school football is, by and large, just another extracurricular activity, and college football is something to watch when there's nothing else on or if you're a gambler. Having spent three years in Arkansas, I can tell you that in the South, anyone with that attitude toward the sport would be considered downright un-American, if not alien!
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Call me un-American. I never went to a game, but I sometimes listened to part of some games, as I went to high school in a town with its own radio station.

And high school football is a religion in Texas. Not in North Carolina, but it's a pretty big deal here too.
 
vchimpanzee said:
That's what I was going to say. I don't think college football is.
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it is in the following cities/college towns: Norman, OK, Austin, TX, College Station, TX, Stillwater, OK, Tuscaloosa, AL, Auburn, AL, Columbus, OH, Happy Valley, PA, Waco, TX and Ann Arbor, MI, where college football is a part of their culture.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
it is in the following cities/college towns: Norman, OK, Austin, TX, College Station, TX, Stillwater, OK, Tuscaloosa, AL, Auburn, AL, Columbus, OH, Happy Valley, PA, Waco, TX and Ann Arbor, MI, where college football is a part of their culture.
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But the extreme fan following is not limited to just the home towns of the teams from those towns.

For much of its broadcast history, the University of Alabama team has had its flagship station in Birmingham, and the following extends across much of Alabama except those areas where Auburn is the big team. The network covered virtually they whole state when I was PD at the flagship station. Roll Tide!

While the FSU Seminoles are based in Tallahassee, the fan base includes much or the panhandle and even goes down to Tampa. The FSU network when I ran WTNT in Tallahasse went as far down as Arcadia, over to Pensacola, up to Columbus, GA and over to Dothan, AL, and as far as Jacksonville to the east.

Using those two examples, ones I am very familiar with, I think we can say that in much of America whole regions are big supporters of the area's college team.
 
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In West TN there is a large fan base for Tennessee, but there are also large numbers of fans for Memphis now that they're having winning seasons, along with Alabama, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State. I think a big factor is that all those colleges are actually closer than Knoxville.
 
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