NFL players don't like the idea
of Thursday football because of concerns of their health being at risk
during a shorter week, Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III told the Hollywood Reporter.
"There are a lot of players out there who feel like there are not enough days in the week for us to be playing on Thursdays," Griffin said. "It's something the NFL is going to have to address to make sure they're keeping their players safe while also trying to maximize their revenue."
Griffin and the Redskins have one game on a Thursday this season — Week 4 vs. the New York Giants. (They also have two Monday night games and a rare Saturday game in Week 16.)
Last season was a nightmare for
Griffin, coming off a torn ACL in which he rushed back to play but
perhaps returned too soon and struggled out of the gate.
Griffin also has seen first-hand
how dangerous Thursday games can be. Last season, Griffin and the
Redskins lost on a Thursday to the Minnesota Vikings, who lost their
starting QB — Christian Ponder — to a shoulder injury mid-game, and
after playing some of his best football of the season in that game, he
never regained that form again and now appears to be the forgotten third
option there.
Two years ago, in Griffin's
rookie season, he watched a virtual body-bag game unfold on Thanksgiving
in Dallas when Cowboys players Miles Austin, Orlando Scandrick and
Bruce Carter as well as the Redskins' London Fletcher
and Josh Wilson all went down with injuries. Fletcher, one of the true
iron men in NFL history, almost didn't play in that game in the first
place because of the short week and the hamstring injury he carried into
it. In the Dallas game, he suffered an ankle injury.