NFL players are used to seeing games almost every day of the week. However, too many straight non-Sunday games continue to irritate seasoned players.
Cameron Heyward, a defensive lineman with the Pittsburgh Steelers, can undoubtedly attest to that. The 34-year-old took aim at the NFL for scheduling three Saturday games and a Thursday match for the Steelers in the final five
weeks of the 2023 regular season in an episode of his podcast, “Not Just Football,” released on January 2.Heyward stated on January 2 that he was “kind of ticked off” by the fact that they had already played three Saturday games and would soon be playing three Saturday games in addition to a Thursday game. We discuss player health and safety a lot, don’t we? For a whole month, we have essentially reduced our chances of making up ground from game to game. When you consider it, it is quite startling.We’re working hard to protect quarterbacks’ bodies and maintain their uprightness, but damn, you’re taking away a recovery day that we’ve had virtually every week in September, October, November, and December because we’re working hard to sell tickets and increase streaming.
Heyward is 100% true when he says that the NFL usually doesn’t consider player safety while making scheduling
That means that several teams, including the Steelers, will play primetime games on unusual days.
The Steelers will conclude the 2023 season with seven key games, when the team played a game while the rest of the league did not, despite the possibility of not making the playoffs.
