Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Following a handful of injuries in his team's 20-17 loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday night, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees took aim at Thursday Night Football games when speaking with reporters. Brees said Thursday games are "absolutely" unsafe — due to little rest players receive after Sunday games — and he thinks the NFL's high injury rate is "One-hundred percent a product of playing on Thursday night.""Do you understand what guys' bodies go through in a game?" Brees told reporters, via the The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune. "And then to have to turn around four days later and to play? ... Is this smart as it pertains to guys' health and safety? No, absolutely not."
As a longtime players' union leader, Brees said he plans to have the issue "addressed." "When you see guys go down, when you lose guys for what you think is unnecessary just because you put them at a much higher risk in such a quick turnaround, that gets you upset," he said.
The Saints (9-4) suffered a slew of injuries on Thursday, including running back Alvin Kamara, who left in the first quarter due to a concussion. Other New Orleans injuries included safety Kenny Vaccaro (groin), linebacker A.J. Klein (groin), guard Senio Kelemete (concussion) and defensive end Trey Hendrickson (ankle).
Brees joined a long list of players who have publicly blasted Thursday games. Seattle's Doug Baldwin said last month that Thursday games should be "illegal" after his teammate Richard Sherman suffered a season-ending achilles tear Nov. 9 against the Arizona Cardinals in a Thursday game.

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Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Talk to a coal miner, oil rig worker, or a fishing boat crew...humans can and do tolerate much much more than 2 football games in a 4 day span.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

I used to get flack for this, but I recall SF playing so conservative in games before TNF when Harbaugh was coaching.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

I hate it but I hate Monday night also

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Apples and oranges comparison.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

They weren't worried about it during the last labor talks.

They also weren't worried about more benefits for retired players.

They collectively bargained to give themselves more money in the short run.

The owners and Rog said okay.

Cry me a river.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Absolutely!

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

The NFL should keep the season opening Thursday Night game, and still keep the 3 Thursday Thanksgiving games, just make sure those 6 teams all have bye weeks before. The rest of the Thursday games should be eliminated.

I would also like the preseason cut to 3 games, and play the most important preseason game on a neutral site, such as Mexico, China, London, or cities in the United States who don't have teams. The NFL can use this as a tool for selling NFL Sunday Ticket, and eliminate all regular season games from being played out of the country.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

They should cut off Thursday games after thanksgiving and keep them earlier in the year. They should also take into consideration how early a team has a bye.
They gave us an early by and back to back division games with a Thursday night away game. That’s pretty damn brutal for any team in the league.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Thursday night after off week

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

You know it's bad when Drew speaks up.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Football Should be played on Sunday. Period.

I give an exception to Thanksgiving. Work out the Bye weeks, and thats cool.

As a franchise life long fan, I plan my winter and fall around it. Sunday... Saints game... Simple.

It is a part of the beauty of the whole thing... Give me 3-1/2 hours once a week. I read the sports page on Sunday, and again on Monday. I have given 4 hours of my week at regularly scheduled intervals to something I enjoy. It has worked well for over half a century.

What the hell I am supposed to do today? Go on Black and Gold and read (Now) Friday Morning Quarterbacks (see how wrong that sounds?) gripe about a pretty hard fought loss?

Thursday, I had to be reduced to simply checking in on the score periodically - and it was Falcon week... Hate it Hate it Hate it.

If I (a mere fan) have a hard time getting my schedule around it I can't imagine what an entire franchise has to go through.

Sunday. Period.


Thursday night Football is the 21st Century's New Coke.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

Never liked Thursday night games.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

OR... keep Thursday games for weeks when there are byes. Have teams coming off a buy play on Thursday. That was the players get a long period before AND after.

If you've got to have them do it that way... teams will clamor to play on Tnursday.

Oh... if you do play the first Thursday, one less preseason game.

Re: Drew Brees blasts Thursday NFL games after several Saints suffer injuries
 

We all know that after Roger Godhell took over he over saturated the market and made a lot of money for the owners. He expanded games into Mexico and forced long European flights on our teams to bring in a foreign money stream.

Football is played all day Sunday and Sunday night. We play on Mondays and Thursdays as well. It's just too much of an over load for me. I don't want to spend that much time watching a watered down product on the field anymore.

I am also so sick of all the additional advertising time......if there is a time out then it's time for a commercial........injury? Go to commercial. Also, they now run advertisements on split screen so that the NFL can maximize profits. Touchdown? Go to commercial. Extra point? Short commercial. Field goal? There is a good chance for a commercial.

Between the watered down products and political agendas I seldom watch football anymore.....besides my beloved Saints and their opponents. In fact I quit watching sports programming because they follow the athletes political agendas incessantly or they run fluff articles. I'm Done watching unless the Saints are on a roll and I love to hear the analysts (anal cysts) back track and eat crow when they begin saying that they always knew we were good. Two faced people annoy me! :argue:

Sorry. Rant over.