Former NFL coach Jon Gruden voiced his frustration with the leagues mammoth $10billion TV decision.
Amazon Prime agreed a massive $10BN deal with the NFL for broadcast rights to Thursday Night Football for a decade. That deal works out at a huge $58.8 million per game as the streaming giant flexed its muscles to enter the live sports domain.
Christmas Day saw fellow streaming platform Netflix enter the scene as they followed up their live sports debut of the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson fight by broadcasting the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens dominant win at the Houston Texans. The never-ending broadcasting battle has raised concerns regarding player workload, with Gruden slamming TNF.
Appearing on Pardon My Take, Gruden explained his dislike for TNF, citing concerns from both a coaching and quality perspective. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl-winning coach said: This is not Major League Baseball, where we can play a doubleheader and go out and play here. This is not the NBA. No disrespect. But this is a lot of physical contact, man! And a lot of these guys are hurting. They are really sucking it up right now.
In a short week, theres no time to practice or get familiar with the opponents blitzes, coverages, or stunts. You dont get to study their red zone or third-down defense, and you cant prepare for goal-line and short-yardage situations, Gruden explained.
The Milano Seamen advisor then elaborated on the challenges that TNF games pose to the preparation of teams. So, there is little preparation, he added. And these guys are beat up, man. I dont like seeing these guys play 61 snaps on Sunday and then have to go 68 on TNF.
It bothers me. I dont mind doing it on Thanksgiving. But I do believe, when you are playing on Thursday, there is very little preparation. There is very little time to recover. And its gonna take its toll on the performance. This is not Major League Baseball.
Thursdays NFL action was a drab contest between the Seattle Seahawks and the Chicago Bears. The miserable game was won 6-3 by the Seahawks in the touchdown-less match-up. Following the Christmas Day action and the Los Angeles Rams 12-6 win against the San Francisco 49ers just two weeks ago, it appears that Amazon isnt getting the entertainment their fees are hoping for.
The two games meant that Amazon paid $120M to broadcast NFL games without any touchdowns scored. Meanwhile, Netflix saw 24.1m live viewers tune into the Chiefs game and 24.3m watch the Ravens-Texans game, which featured a stunning halftime show by Beyonce.
Despite the action-sparse games, TNF has exceeded its viewership from last year by 54 percent. The Rams-49ers game drew 12.29 million viewers while the November games averaged 13 million viewers.
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