Arian Foster Comments on NFL's Scheduling of Thursday Night Football

Houston Texans running back Arian Foster spoke out against the NFL's polarizing Thursday Night Football package at his Monday press conference, calling the scheduling "hypocritical" as it relates to the league's emphasis on player safety.

Tania Ganguli of ESPN provided Foster's comments:

Houston is scheduled to play the Indianapolis Colts this Thursday. Foster, who carried the ball 23 times for 157 yards in the Texans' 20-17 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, is dealing with a lingering hamstring issue. He was listed on the injury report entering Week 5 before giving it a go, but it's unclear whether the shortened schedule will affect his status for Week 6.

NFLPA President Eric Winston would later respond to Foster's comments via Kristie Rieken of the Associated Press: 

"

We don't take health and safety things lightly, and we always address such protocols as we see fit. We will always go with the medical data. If a majority of players say we need to get rid of this, it is not good, we are going to listen to this, and look into if it is time to make a change.

"

Thursday Night Football has been a staple on the NFL schedule since 2006. It expanded to include games prior to November in 2012. CBS is paying the NFL $275 million for the broadcast rights to eight Thursday Night Football games this season and is covering the production cost for subsequent iterations in NFL Network.

Foster said the league's desire to create revenue is trumping player safety concerns, per Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle:

Foster is the second NFL player to speak out against Thursday night games in the past week. Green Bay Packers guard Josh Sitton, whose team earned a 42-10 win over the Minnesota Vikings last Thursday, told reporters the games "suck" for players.

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

"That's what this league is about, is about making money, which is fine," Sitton said. "I like to make money as well. But, yeah, it's tough on your body, tough on your head." 

The tone from many fans has also shifted to one of derision, mostly due to the lack of competitiveness so far in Thursday games. No Thursday Night Football game this season has been decided by fewer than 20 points, and each of the last three has had a margin of more than 30 points. The average halftime deficit in those games has been 26.7 points.

While that has led to numerous media members wondering "what's wrong" with Thursday games, more rational analysis shows they are rarely much different on average than Sunday affairs. Grantland's Bill Barnwell ran studies that showed there was no statistically significant change in turnovers, dropped passes or margin of victory regardless of the day a game was played.

Ratings have also not tapered off significantly despite the early-season blowouts. There has been a 56 percent increase in the overnight household/share ratings from 2013 to 2014, thanks in large part to Thursday Night Football's move to a broadcast network.

The player safety concern, however, is one that's far more important than the quality of games or even ratings. If more players begin speaking out like Foster and Sitton, it will be interesting to see if the league reconsiders the situation.

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