49ers coach explains why Thursday night NFL games are so terrible

It’s one thing to simply call the product on the field bad, as the most vocal critics online do. But it’s another to explain why the product is poor in the first place. Shanahan did the latter while speaking with reporters Tuesday, opting for a crowd-friendly euphemism to sum up how tough the shortened week can be. 

“Yes, you feel extremely rushed,” he said. “I saw the players a few hours ago, and it was the first time I saw them. I told them it was Wednesday morning and by the end of our first meeting, it was Thursday, is kind of how we explained it. And tomorrow morning, it’s Friday, but by 10 o’clock it’s the day before the game.

“So, it’s weird. We’re throwing four days into two days, as coaching staff we throw two days into one day. So it’s kind of a sh— uh, lost for words when I can’t swear up here. It’s a ‘something show’ as we do it.”

Shanahan added that the one redeeming quality of Thursday games is that they happen at night, which gives the team time during the day of the game to “review your whole week — which is the day before — on all the stuff that came in so you don’t hesitate in the game.”

These comments came as a surprise to tight end George Kittle. It’s not that the player disagreed with his coach’s assessment, but rather the word Shanahan almost used to make his point.

“That’s what Kyle said? Oh wow. I’ve never known him to have a potty mouth,” Kittle said.

Kittle expanded on Shanahan’s point from a player’s perspective, and, because he’s ever the optimist, he shared his own silver lining to the short week.

“There’s just a lot that goes into it. I know the coaches, they probably didn’t sleep very much last night,” Kittle said. “I think we have a great game plan, I’m still in the process of studying it and kind of just swallowing all of that I would say — just trying to learn it all. But, what the great thing is is you learn it all, there’s not really any tough practices, it’s just walk-through stuff. You get a lot of sleep because we push all our meetings back to a later start time. And then you play a game on Thursday and you get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off.”

Another bright side for the Niners is that they get to do all of this frantic preparation at home, because Thursday’s game is in Santa Clara. They weren’t as lucky in 2021, when their Thursday game was all the way in Tennessee. They also played on Thursday last year in Seattle.

The Niners are off to a ferocious start to the season, dropping 30-bombs in consecutive road wins — though the second was an away game in name only — and they’ll want to keep that momentum going. Based on what Shanahan described, they’ll meet their biggest roadblock Thursday at 5:15 p.m. Pacific time, at kickoff.