RENTON — Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman has never shied away from voicing his displeasure with the NFL on a wide range of issues, and on Tuesday he found another topic to sound off against: Thursday night games.
With the Seahawks scheduled to host the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday at CenturyLink Field, Sherman opened his Tuesday press conference at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center railing against having to play on a Thursday night.
“It’s terrible,” Sherman said when he stepped to the podium, prior to being asked any questions. “We got home (from Sunday’s 38-10 loss at Green Bay) at like 1 o’clock in the morning on Monday, then we have to play again. Congratulations NFL, you did it again. But they’ve been doing it all season, so I guess we’re the last ones to get the middle finger.”
The NFL began holding Thursday night games in 2006 as a method to expand its profile and create new revenue. However, there’s always been questions about Thursday games. The consensus is the quality of play in Thursday games is poorer because teams have less time to prepare.
But no one has objected to the Thursday games more than the players, who believe they don’t have enough time to physically recover when they play on Thursday. Normally players have a full week between games to recover, but when teams play on Thursday the players lose three recovery days. Sherman estimated that following a Sunday game he’s only 50-60 percent recovered by Thursday.
“It’s just no regard,” said Sherman, who characterized Thursday games as among his top five issues with the league. “It’s hypocritical, as I’ve stated before. They make just huge stands about player safety, then you put the players in tremendous danger.”
The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2020 season, so Sherman is resigned to having to deal with Thursday night games until at least then.
“We’ll be well aware come the next CBA negotiations about things like this,” said Sherman who is one of Seattle’s three players union representatives. “There’s really not much you can do right now, it’s part of the revenue, etc. And further, the league probably has something else up their sleeve. They might have a Friday night game planned, who knows?”
Roster moves
The Seahawks placed two players on injured reserve Tuesday. Running back Troymaine Pope re-aggravated a sprained ankle in Sunday’s loss to Green Bay, while fullback Will Tukuafu suffered a concussion the previous week in Seattle’s 40-7 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Being placed on injured reserve ends both players’ season.
Seattle filled the spots on its 53-man roster by signing running back Kelvin Taylor and linebacker Ronald Powell. Taylor, the son of former NFL running back Fred Taylor, was a sixth-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in this year’s draft. He spent most of the season on San Francisco’s practice squad before being released in late November. Powell was a fifth-round pick by the New Orleans Saints in the 2014 draft. Powell, who appeared in 14 games with the Saints in 2014 before being released in September of 2015, had been on the Chicago Bears’ practice squad.
For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at www.heraldnet.com/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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