Credit: Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports
Pittsburgh Steelers star Cameron Heyward is not a fan of the NFL having many games each season on Saturday and Thursday, especially late in the schedule when players need all the recovery time they can get.
The NFL has become a sports and entertainment giant in North America, and in recent years, in other international markets. Outside of the sport’s brutality appealing to many fans, the league has successfully created a product that can draw interest all year, and almost all week during the season.
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For decades football fans knew only Sunday and a lone game on Monday night as the only days for professional football. However, in the 21st century, they have expanded beyond those days to frequent games on Thursdays and Saturdays as they bring in record revenue and ratings each year.
It has always rubbed players the wrong way because the violence of the sport requires a lot of recovery time as some can find it hard to even walk the day after games. Especially when they are 10 or more weeks into the season.
This season the Pittsburgh Steelers had four games on Saturday and Thursday in the final month of the season. It is something the team great Cameron Heyward has a big problem with, especially since three of them were in December, and they will end the season with a Saturday game as the team fights for a playoff spot.
“One thing I want to bring up that’s kind of ticked me off in December, we’ve played three Saturday games, and we’re going to have played three Saturday games and a Thursday game,” Heyward told ESPN this week. “We talk so much about player safety and player health, right? We’ve literally decreased our chance of recovering game to game for an entire month. That just is kind of shocking when you think about it.
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“We’re trying to make strides in protecting the body, we’re trying to make strides in keeping quarterbacks upright, but like damn, you’re taking away a recovery day that we’ve had almost every week throughout September, October, November, and then we get to December because we’re trying to sell tickets and we’re trying to push the streaming to another level. You know, you’re screwing us in the process.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 1-2 in their games on Thursday and Saturday this season.