NFLPA director: Only half of players dislike Thursday games

While commissioner Roger Goodell seems to be pushing his own alternative facts about how Thursday night football games are better than the Sunday product, it appears the league's players may not be so quick to disagree.

Executive director of the NFLPA DeMaurice Smith says that about half of players don't have a problem with playing games on Thursdays and dealing with the short practice weeks that come along with them.

"When you talk to players about Thursday night games, I would say 50 percent of the players don’t mind them and 50 percent of the players mind them," Smith told the Washington Post, according to Mark Maske on Tuesday. "How many rep meetings have we had where Thursday night games were a big issue? Not that much."

According to Smith, some players are alright with the short week because their coaches make the preparation easier out of necessity and after the game is played, players get a little extra time off.

"For the coaches who give their players time off heading into a Thursday game, those players love it because you’re not having contact and you’re not working hard on that week, and then you play the Thursday night game and then what? You’ve got a long break. So those dudes are cool," Smith said. "For the players who have coaches who are beating them up before the Thursday night game, they might have another problem."

Thursday night games are not of great concern for the players association because the union doesn't get a vote in the matter like individual player reps do. While many fans and media are outraged at having to sit through Thursday games, Smith believes the public perception has been overblown as to how big of an issue midweek games are internally.

"I’m not being coy," Smith said. "But when somebody asks me what should happen with Thursday night games, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because I don’t get a vote.

"If Thursday night games are a big issue for our reps, they’ll bring it up. If they want to vote on a resolution to do something with Thursday night games - play them, not play them, engage the league about them - that’s what we do."