The possibility of the NFL adding another standalone game to its calendar is already drawing criticism from some corners of sports media. During Wednesday’s edition of The Valenti Show with Rico on Detroit sports radio station 97.1 The Ticket, host Mike Valenti reacted sharply to reports that the National Football League could stage a regular-season matchup on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving as soon as the upcoming season.
For Valenti, the concept represents yet another example of the league stretching its schedule in the pursuit of additional television inventory and revenue.
“Just make it stop,” Valenti said on the program. “It’s not funny. I’m just done. Like, is there no limit to the greed?”
The NFL already dominates the sports television landscape with games spread across multiple days of the week throughout the season. In addition to its traditional Sunday slate, the league currently features a prime-time Monday night package and a Thursday night series.
Holiday programming has also become part of the schedule, with the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys hosting annual Thanksgiving games for many years. The NFL also stages occasional matchups airing on Christmas Day. However, Valenti argued that football’s appeal historically stemmed from its place within a predictable weekly routine.
“Football is great because it was developed on Sunday — a day that old school, everyone was home,” Valenti said. “You either went to church or you went and got bagels on a Sunday morning. You had Sunday and you had football.”
While he acknowledged that certain schedule expansions over the years have become part of the modern NFL landscape, Valenti suggested the league may now be approaching a tipping point.
“I understood Monday night’s a thing,” he continued. “Hey, we’re going to do Thursday. Lions have our tradition. They’re going to play on Thanksgiving. Look, I’ll live with a lot. Once a decade, games end up on Christmas Eve. Fine. You can play Saturday night. I get it. It’s the holidays. Look at what this has become.”
The Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving window has become an attractive television slot across the entertainment industry, often drawing significant audiences as families begin gathering for the holiday weekend. For the NFL, another national broadcast window would represent additional programming inventory for media partners or a potential streaming package.
That possibility also drew criticism from Valenti, who suggested the league continues to prioritize new distribution deals over the viewing experience for fans.
“I’m tired of it,” Valenti said. “It’s ruining something I love so much. There’s no need for it. Nobody wants it. Nobody asked for it.”
Valenti also speculated that if the league ultimately adds the game, it could become another exclusive broadcast tied to a digital platform.
“And you know what they’re gonna do?” he added. “They’re gonna sell that game for 150 million bucks to some knockoff stream provider. And it’s gonna be another thing that [producer] Kenny’s got to pirate and we got to buy. It’s just nonsense.”
The NFL has not announced any formal plans to add a Wednesday game, though discussions about expanding holiday-week programming have surfaced periodically as the league continues exploring new media opportunities.
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