You’re sitting on your couch, it’s a random Thursday in October, and the familiar theme music kicks in. It feels like it’s always been there, right? A permanent fixture of the American work week. But if you try to remember a time before the color-rush jerseys and the short-week controversies, things get a little fuzzy. Most fans think it started with the massive Amazon Prime deal or maybe the early days of NFL Network.
Actually, it goes way back.
If you want the short answer to when did Thursday night football begin, the official NFL-branded package we know today kicked off on November 23, 2006. It was Thanksgiving night. The Kansas City Chiefs played the Denver Broncos. But that’s just the "corporate" birthday. The NFL has been flirting with Thursdays since the leather-helmet days, and the road to making it a weekly habit was paved with a lot of weird experiments and broadcast rights battles.
The 2006 Kickoff: Why Everything Changed
Before 2006, Thursday games were basically special events. You had your Thanksgiving games, obviously, and maybe a stray late-season matchup to fill out the schedule. But in 2006, the league decided they wanted their own house. They launched the NFL Network and needed a "reason to exist" for cable subscribers.
That reason was a five-year, $400 million deal to air a late-season package of games. It wasn’t a full season yet. It started on Thanksgiving and ran through the end of the year. Bryant Gumbel was the play-by-play guy, which—looking back—was such a specific vibe for that era of sports broadcasting.
The league wasn't just trying to make more money (though, let’s be real, they always are). They were trying to exert leverage over cable providers. By putting live, "meaningful" NFL games on their own network, they forced Comcast and Time Warner to carry the channel. It was a power move. Fans were annoyed because they suddenly needed a specific cable tier to see their team play, but the NFL knew people would pay. They were right.
Before the Modern Era: The "Forgotten" Thursday Games
If we’re being technical about when did Thursday night football begin, we have to look at the 70s and 80s. The first "modern" era Thursday night game actually happened on September 18, 1980. The Los Angeles Rams played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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It wasn't a weekly thing. It was a "special" broadcast on ABC. Back then, Monday Night Football was the king of the mountain, and the league was just testing the waters to see if people would tune in on a school night for a non-holiday game. They did. Between 1980 and 2005, the NFL sprinkled about 50 games onto Thursdays. These were usually aired on ESPN or TNT.
Did you know there were even games in the 1920s? On October 14, 1926, the New York Giants played the Philadelphia Quakers (a team from a rival league) on a Thursday. But that's deep lore. For the modern fan, the timeline really starts when the league realized they could own a third night of the week.
The Expansion of the Schedule
In 2012, the NFL went all in. They expanded the schedule so that every single team would play at least one Thursday game per year. This was the "everyone gets a turn" era. It ensured that even if your team was having a miserable 2-10 season, you’d still get one primetime spotlight.
- 2006-2011: Late-season games only (Start in November).
- 2012-2021: Full-season schedules, eventually shared between NFL Network, CBS, FOX, and NBC.
- 2022-Present: The Amazon Era.
The jump to Amazon Prime Video in 2022 was arguably as big a shift as the 2006 launch. It marked the first time a major NFL package was exclusive to a streaming service. No local cable? No game. Unless, of course, you lived in the local markets of the two teams playing, where the league still mandates a broadcast over-the-air.
Why Do Players Hate It? (The Short Week Problem)
You can't talk about when did Thursday night football begin without talking about the "Short Week." It is the bane of an NFL player's existence.
Think about the physics of a football game. It's basically a series of controlled car crashes. Players usually spend Monday and Tuesday of a normal week just getting the swelling down. On a Thursday schedule, they are practicing on Tuesday and playing on Wednesday's "body clock."
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Richard Sherman, the legendary cornerback, once famously called Thursday night games a "poopfest." He didn't use that exact word, but you get the drift. He argued that the league's focus on player safety was hypocritical if they were going to force athletes to play 60 minutes of high-impact football on three days of rest.
The data on injuries is actually a bit contested. Some studies suggest there isn't a massive spike in injuries on Thursdays compared to Sundays, but players will tell you they feel worse. The quality of play often dips. We’ve all seen those 9-6 Thursday night snoozers where both offenses look like they’re running through mud. That’s the "Thursday effect."
The Logic Behind the Chaos
Why do it? Money. Obviously.
But it’s also about "share of mind." The NFL wants to dominate the news cycle. By playing on Thursday, they ensure that the conversation from Sunday’s games carries directly into the "preview" for Thursday. Then, the Thursday results carry the conversation into the weekend. It’s a 24/7 loop.
Key Milestones in the Thursday Timeline
- November 23, 2006: The official birth of the TNF brand on NFL Network.
- 2014: CBS enters a partnership to broadcast games, bringing a "big game" feel to the mid-week.
- 2016: NBC gets a piece of the pie.
- 2017: The league starts experimenting with "tri-casts" (broadcast TV + NFL Network + Amazon).
- 2022: Amazon takes over exclusively in a 11-year deal worth about $1 billion per year.
The Cultural Impact of the Mid-Week Game
It's changed how we gamble and how we play Fantasy Football. Honestly, it’s a nightmare for Fantasy. You have to decide by Thursday morning if you’re going to start that "questionable" wide receiver who might not even suit up. If you bench him and he goes off for two touchdowns, your weekend is ruined before it even starts.
It has also turned Thursday into a "mini-Saturday." In college towns, Thursday night games were always a thing, but the NFL effectively colonized that space. It’s now the unofficial start of the football weekend for the degenerate fans among us.
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Looking Forward: Flex Scheduling
The newest wrinkle in the when did Thursday night football begin saga is "flex scheduling." Starting recently, the NFL gained the power to move better games into the Thursday slot later in the season. This was a huge point of contention. Imagine you bought tickets and booked a hotel for a Sunday game in December, only for the league to move it to Thursday three weeks before kickoff.
The league insists this is for the "good of the fans" so we don't get stuck watching two teams with losing records. The fans whose travel plans are ruined might disagree. But the NFL is a television product first and an in-person event second. That’s the reality of the 2020s.
How to Make the Most of Your Thursday Viewership
If you’re going to watch, understand what you’re getting. Thursday games are often more about coaching and "ugly" wins than explosive offensive displays.
Next Steps for the Savvy Fan:
- Check the Injury Report on Tuesday: This is the most important day for Thursday games. If a star player is "Limited" on Tuesday, there is a very high chance they don't play Thursday.
- Update Your Streaming App: If you’re watching on Amazon, make sure your app is updated at least 20 minutes before kickoff. There’s nothing worse than a "Mandatory Update" screen when the ball is in the air.
- Adjust Your Fantasy Strategy: Never put a Thursday player in your "Flex" spot. Always put them in their dedicated RB or WR spot. This keeps your Flex spot open for Sunday in case one of your other players gets a late-week injury.
- Monitor the Local Forecast: Because players are tired, bad weather affects Thursday games significantly more than Sunday games. Heavy rain on a Thursday usually leads to a very high number of turnovers.
The history of Thursday Night Football is really the history of the NFL’s growth from a Sunday hobby into a multi-billion-dollar media empire that owns the calendar. It started as a Thanksgiving tradition, turned into a cable-provider leverage play, and ended up as the crown jewel of the streaming wars. Love it or hate it, the short week is here to stay.