Now that the NFL has a full slate of Thursday games, how hard is it for football players to recover and play on three days’ rest instead of six?
Running into other players at top speed is hard enough without cutting recovery time in half. Thursday night NFL games – called a ‘poopfest’ by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman—present a challenge to players and coaching staffs as they try to prepare in three days rather than the standard six.
Critics, like Sherman, claim that the quality of play suffers when teams are left with less time to prepare a game plan. And though the NFL is quick to point out that injury rates are no greater for Thursday games, players also complain that for a league ostensibly concerned with safety, playing while fatigued heightens the risk of injury.
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