Retired CB admits some 'Thursday Night Football' games are 'just a brutal watch'

It appears retired cornerback and current media personality Jason McCourty is among members of the NFL community who could do without at least some editions of "Thursday Night Football." 

"I had to figure out I’m not an early sleeper, so I had to figure that schedule out," McCourty told Jimmy Traina during an appearance on the "Sports Illustrated Media Podcast," as shared by Jordan Bondurant of the Barrett Sports Media website. "But that is the hardest part. Those Thursday night games, especially some of those games throughout the year, just, like you’re watching and the score is 3-6 in the fourth quarter. It’s just a brutal watch sometimes. But nope, I gotta stay up, I gotta talk about this game tomorrow. So it’s definitely 100 percent a grind."

Specifically, McCourty was discussing having to watch "Thursday Night Football" and then work NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" show the following day. 

Nevertheless, his comments are noteworthy because, as Andrew Cohen of Sports Business Journal mentioned, McCourty served as an analyst for Westwood One's radio coverage of some "Thursday Night Football" contests this season. 

McCourty isn't the only person paid to watch "TNF" to point out a handful of matchups left plenty to be desired throughout the 2022 campaign. 

Legendary play-by-play broadcaster Al Michaels generated headlines earlier this month when he likened calling such events for Amazon Prime Video to selling "a 20-year-old Mazda." 

Hall of Famer Troy Aikman and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady also previously seemed to take shots at "TNF" games. 

Amazon reportedly pays $1.2 billion per year for the exclusive video rights to "TNF" games. Executives with that company are probably less than thrilled to hear a plethora of negative reviews for the midweek clashes, particularly from individuals with deep NFL ties.