NFL - NEWS & NOTES

I can't think of any.. They share revenue stream, so I don't know how a team would gain an advantage there either. This is a weird one.

 

They might have data on attendance numbers, marketing exposure, who knows...

 

That's true

 

Only thing I can think of is that while just about everyone plays on a Thursday - home and away - at some point or another, Dallas and Detroit are ALWAYS at home that Thursday.

 

The Steelers were pissed that they had to play two Christmas in a row. I think players want to be home on the holidays. A family holiday would suck if you are not with your family.

 

So? Why does that Thursday matter?

 

I doubt many of them were "truly" upset about the Xmas day National TV game.....Don't they pay these guys enough so that if they want to be with their families, they can make that happen?

 

Per, 'prideofdetroit'.com...

It’s an annual tradition unlike any other. Just as the NFL owners meeting approaches, new rule proposals emerge, and at least one person or team urges the NFL to change or strip the Detroit Lions’ Thanksgiving Day tradition.

This year’s culprit is the Philadelphia Eagles, who reportedly proposed a rule change that wouldn’t take the Thanksgiving Day game from the Lions, but would force them to take it on the road every once in a while. Here’s how the proposal read, according to Pro Football Talk:

to continue the annual tradition of having Dallas and Detroit play on Thanksgiving, provided that one of those clubs host a home game with the other club playing away, and alternating home and away games each subsequent season.

It’s unclear what the motivation here is for the Eagles. Perhaps they simply want to expand the tradition to other teams, but the league added a third Thanksgiving Day game in 2006 to allow more teams to get in on the game. Maybe they simply wanted a chance to host more Thanksgiving Day games, since their in-division rival, the Dallas Cowboys, gets their own game every year.

Regardless of motive, their proposal is already dead. The Eagles withdrew their proposal and the Lions’ tradition is safe for another year.

 

Don't the stats bear out a Thursday home game is a competitive advantage now that we have a larger sample size of games? The competition committee should be all over taking that away from the Cowboys and Lions every season by default.

 

How so?

 

It shouldn't. Playing on a Thursday isn't an advantage.

 

Let's just have Dallas play Detroit every thanksgiving. lol!

That way at least two other teams would get to host a Thanksgiving Day game.

Add a twist to make it seem special. Maybe a venue change;

Thanksgiving night Browns/Steelers game from the Horseshoe (Ohio Stadium) in Columbus Ohio..... I think that would be cool.

 

Last 10 years Detroit is 4-6 on Thanksgiving; Dallas is 5-5. Not much of a competitive advantage.

 

Playing on Thursday is not an advantage but being the home team on a Thursday generally is. I need to find the data -- but I believe the home team wins on Thursday about 5 percentage points more often then the home team not on a Thursday historically speaking. I don't have time to hunt around for it right now but here is the home record of Thursday night games from 2014 to week 10 of 2018.


Thursday Night Football Results, Since 2014
Season Home Team Record
2018* 8-2
2017 8-8
2016 12-4
2015 10-6
2014 10-6
*Through 10 games

The actual data may have changed in recent years though because we are still dealing with a fairly small sample size overall.

 

So ya don't wanna play a Thursday Night game on the road, especially in an even numbered year....

 

But I don't understand how the variables correlate to the argument.

Home teams generally have a competitive advantage, as they don't have to travel, get the home crowd, etc.

Thursdays are short weeks for both teams.

Sure, there's a recent trend, but that neither indicates legitimate causation, nor creates a direct correlation to the argument that there's any unfairness.

 

A 6% difference in win rate for the home team overall vs. an 11% difference in win rate vs the home team on Thursday shows that hosting a Thursday game is a competitive advantage that is greater than just hosting a game. Two teams are guaranteed this advantage every season on the basis of tradition -- Dallas and Detroit. If there is a real correlation (and again the statistics for Thursday home games are far more limited than regular season home games) than allowing those teams to continue playing Thanksgiving day games but making one home and the other away every season would be in the best interest of fair competition.

If I am being honest I don't care at all. The Thanksgiving games are a tradition and the Lions and Cowboys are playing 8 home games and 8 away games either way. But it's a fairly easy argument to make as the sample size grows and the correlation of a higher win percentage hosting a Thursday game continues to exist.

 

Well, wait a minute. If we're going to make the assertion that a Thursday night home game provides an obvious and concrete advantage, then we shouldn't just be worried about Dallas and Detroit - we should make sure that every single team gets an even amount of home and away Thursday night games in one season. That's the only fair way to do it. The team making the argument against Dallas and Detroit's home games would have that information, and would hopefully come to that same conclusion in their own interest. Given that, I'm puzzled as to why that's not the proposal that was made. It's almost as if it's just a recent trend, and not actually an evidentially supportable theory.

 

Well the NFL likes money. Thrusday night games put the NFL on more often and thus make them more money. So to the owners maybe the money is worth more than the competitive advantage.

Also it really must be noted that they have only had Thursday night games for what 10 years? Thanksgiving goes back longer than that though. And they started only playing partial seasons on Thursday. So even if the data is truly representative they still have less than a full NFL season worth of games as the comparison sample (maybe it is with all Thanksgiving history?). It's certainly something the NFL should keep an eye on -- but I am not sure it's egregious enough to kick anyone into action on. The coaches on the committee should and likely do care -- but owners very likely don't and don't want to be confronted with it until it proves out with a larger sample size and shows to be significant outside the margin of error.

 

My vote - we should just do away with Thursday night games.