Amazon and the NFL tried to spice up their Thursday night squad this year by highlighting their “story line” quarterbacks: Russell Wilson and Matt Ryan leading their new team in Week 5, and multi-talented youngster Justin Fields versus Shakespeare Carson Wentz in Week 6. , and so on. However, this programming tactic backfired, as none of these players lived up to their billing.

Thus, Friday’s league news cycle became a weekly referendum on unfulfilled expectations, which won’t happen if Wilson and the others disappoint local fans during Sunday’s regional telecast.

Ultimately, highlighting one regular game of the weekly NFL schedule is like isolating sick wild animals from the herd: skeptical fans approach the game ready to attack, spending the day picking up their carcasses. One soccer game, presented in isolation and without Brady or Patrick Mahomes in the opening credits, isn’t as interesting as the league would like it to be.

However, no matter how inattentive the matches are, fans still catch up on their talk: “Friday Night Football” Averaged 11.26 million viewers per game through Week 5. By contrast, Thursday’s top-rated network program “Young Sheldon” It attracted 6.9 million viewers On October 13, while the first game of the Major League Soccer series between the Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians was on October 11, that is, Tuesday, Attracted 5.35 million viewers. A community that would rather watch Wentz than Aaron Judge With a margin of 2 to 1 he ends up getting exactly what he’s worth.

In a sense, “Thursday Night Football” is the NFL’s version of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” — an ironically celebrated opportunity to play while throwing toast at the league’s dazzling photo. On the other hand, horror is more realistic and existential.

Millions of fans have tasked ourselves with enjoying unsatisfactory sports entertainment, bitterly expressing the experience, then voluntarily opening our eyeballs with a toothpick next week for more information. Perhaps if the games finally reach a turning point in the rot, we will break the soul-crushing cycle and escape the waking nightmare of ingrained NFL mania.

A note on programming: Saints Back’s reserve quarterback Andy Dalton was also included in the injury report early in the week, which means third-series instrument specialist, Taysom Hill, may start. This sounds rather fun. So let’s do Time Warp again.