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Jon Gruden calls for the NFL to get rid of Thursday Night Football games

Danby: Daniel Hager11/11/25DanielHagerOn3

Since 2006, Thursday Night Football has been a staple of the National Football League. It serves as a bit of an appetizer for the Sunday slate, Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football. However, former NFL head coach Jon Gruden is calling for TNF to come to an end.

This plea comes after last Thursday night’s game between the Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders. Denver came out on top 10-7 to improve to 8-2 on the season in a game that featured just 408 total yards and one touchdown. The game was knotted at seven at the break, and a field goal from Bronco kicker Wil Lutz near the end of the third quarter was the deciding score.

Due to team’s not having a full week to prepare, Gruden said that forcing players and coaches to participate in these games is ‘not fair’.

“Let’s start with Thursday Night Football man,” Gruden said. “What a treat it is. No preparation, no time to recover, no chance. Get rid of these Thursday night games. Dump them! It’s not fair to the players, it’s not fair to the coaches. Who goes out and tries to perform at a high level with no preparation? Dump these games.”

This season, just four of 10 Thursday Night Football games have been one-possession games. The weekly game has grown a bad reputation for years now due to poor performance and lack of entertainment, but TNF shows no signs of stopping as Amazon Prime pays approximately $1 billion a year for the rights.

Gruden revealed he is preparing himself to coach last month

Gruden gave his take during Barstool’s daily ‘Wake Up Barstool‘ show on FS1. The former Super Bowl winning head coach has been with the brand since Nov. 2024. However, a return to coaching could soon be on the horizon.

“I absolutely love football,” Gruden said on the Oct. 17 edition of ‘Pardon My Take‘. “I love it, and it’s pretty much all I have. I have an office, for the people who don’t know, I’ve got a server in there. I just put a lot of money into a server that collects all the film and allows me to study them. Who knows what will happen, but I’m preparing myself as always to coach. But, behind the scenes, we’re getting plenty of football. I promise you.”

He has been linked to multiple job openings around the college football landscape, but nothing more than rumors have materialized so far. As head coach of the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders, Gruden was 2-3 in Thursday Night Football games.