NFL Rumors: Owners to Vote on Thursday Night Football Flex Schedule Change Next Week

NFL owners are reportedly scheduled to hold a second vote next week on the possibility of allowing Thursday Night Football games to be flexed.

According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, a previous vote was held at the owners meeting in March, but the resolution did not pass because it fell short of three-quarters of the owners supporting it.

The NFL only received 22 of the 24 needed votes, as eight owners voted no and two abstained from voting.

Per Kaplan, the league is pushing to make Thursday night games eligible for flex scheduling after ratings dipped significantly for Thursday Night Football last season.

TNF was reportedly viewed by an average of four million fewer people last year than in 2021, and there were multiple reasons.

Perhaps the biggest was the fact that the games moved from cable television to the Amazon Prime streaming service. Additionally, many games were uninteresting or non-competitive, and there was nothing the NFL could do to change them once the schedule was made.

Thursday Night Football was often the butt of jokes last season, particularly during a two-week stretch in October that saw the Indianapolis Colts beat the Denver Broncos 12-9 one week, followed by the Washington Commanders defeating the Chicago Bears 12-7 the following week.

Flex scheduling has applied to the final seven weeks of the season for Sunday Night Football since 2006, and beginning this season, Monday Night Football will be involved as well.

The difference between playing on Sunday or Monday is negligible, but having a Sunday game moved to Thursday has the potential to create a significant competitive disadvantage.

It also requires major planning changes for fans attending the games, which seems to be one of the biggest reasons many owners were against it initially.

According to Kaplan, New York Giants owner John Mara provided some insight into the situation in March, saying:

"At some point, can we please give some consideration to the people who are coming to our games? People make plans to go to these games weeks and months in advance. And 15 days ahead of time to say, 'Sorry, folks, that game you were planning on taking your kids to Sunday at 1, now it's on Thursday night?' What are we thinking about?"

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell countered by saying, "Providing the best matchups for our fans is what we do."

Both the NFL and Amazon have a vested interest in making Thursday Night Football a bigger success in 2023, as Amazon is paying the NFL $1 billion per year over 11 years for exclusive rights to Thursday night games.