Life’s not fair. That is something we have been told since the time we were in grade school, and we have all had a chance to experience how true it can be at one point or another. According to the Star-Ledger, the NFL Network’s Mike Maycock says the Jets feel as though life in the NFL is not fair for them this season because of the way their Thursday Night Football appearance was scheduled.
November will be a challenging month for the Jets as they find themselves a game out of first place in the AFC East with two games against the Bills, one against the Patriots, and one against the Broncos. You might expect the game against Denver to be an easy win for New York, but Maycock said the Jets are unhappy that they have to play the Broncos on Thursday Night Football after taking on the Patriots the previous Sunday night.
“They’re upset because they, I believe, are the only team that plays on Thursday night that has to play the previous Sunday night, as opposed to Sunday day,” Maycock, who is the color commentator for Thursday Night Football, said. “So they already feel like they are upset with the NFL office for scheduling, and by the way, they are playing the New England Patriots on Sunday night. So put yourself in the Jets coaches’ shoes: they finish around midnight on Sunday night, and they’re going to go right into game planning for Denver, so they feel like there is a competitive disadvantage there.
“Every team in the league has concerns about what they perceive to be scheduling inequities,” Mayock added. “I think some of the Jets people feel like, ‘Hey, why are we the only team that plays Thursday night with a preceding Sunday night game?’ … They have less prep time, and then you’ve got to travel to Denver. So on the surface, that’s a brutal week for them. Any team in the league – and they might not say it – any team in the league that has something like that, underneath is frustrated. Every team has their pet peeves; this would be the one for the Jets.”
Once flex scheduling begins it is possible another team that has a Thursday night game could be slid into the previous Sunday night slot, but as of now New York is the only team that has to deal with it. Does the schedule put the Jets at a disadvantage? It’s quite possible, but we have seen where complaining about scheduling gets people in professional sports. The truth of the matter is it would be impossible to schedule games for all 32 teams while being 100 percent fair to everyone. If I were the Jets, I’d be thankful the game I’m playing on short rest is against Denver and not New England or Buffalo.
