NFL Exec: Thursday Flex Schedule 'Not a Concern from a Health and Safety Perspective'

NFL owners will vote next week on whether to add flexibility to late-season Thursday night schedules, and Jeff Miller, the league's vice president of communications, public affairs and policy, said Friday that the possible adjustment is "not a concern from a health and safety perspective."

"... Over the course of the last several years now, we have not seen a differential injury rate on Thursday night games or, said more precisely, on games played on short rest compared to games played on longer rest," Miller added on a conference call.

If the flex is approved, the league would be able to shift Sunday afternoon games to Thursday nights in the final four weeks of the regular season with 15 days' notice, according to Ben Fischer and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.

The NFL would also be able to schedule teams for consecutive Sunday and Thursday games twice in a season. Current rules only allow each team to experience one short week per campaign.

The goal is reportedly to revamp Amazon Prime's Thursday Night Football product in hopes to reversing the viewership decline it suffered after moving to streaming last season.

NFL owners will gather in Phoenix from March 26-29 to discuss the flex scheduling question and other issues at the annual league meetings.

Fischer and Ourand noted that "NFL resolutions rarely are sent to the full ownership for a vote without a high degree of confidence they will pass" and that this is one of the few gatherings where head coaches will be present. They could echo some of concerns of the players association .

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio asked some of the questions that might come up:

"Can a player who is already banged up get ready to go on a short week? Is a player who finds a way to play on Thursday after emerging from Sunday's game taking an unacceptable risk? Does playing more than one short-week game in a 17-game regular season increase the risk of injury at some point in the year, regardless of whether it happens in a short-week or normal-week game?"

Whether the NFLPA or the head coaches raise these concerns during the annual meetings could determine the future of Thursday Night Football.