NFL Network plans 13 Thursday night games in 2012 | ProFootballTalk. The Green Bay Packers were going to wind up in prime time anyway, but now every team NFL team will play at least once in prime time.

What amused me about the announcement is that these games will be on the NFL Network. This gives the owners some additional ammo to force all cable providers to carry it. But this issue was also part of the now resolved lockout.

The NFL was going to add more revenue by selling this package of games on the open market. While TV viewership is generally in decline, NFL ratings keep growing, and any number of networks might have paid top dollar for this package of Thursday night games.

And who did the owners find to buy this valuable package of games? Themselves! Was this really the best the owners and Roger Goodell could do? It's questions like this one that drive the players to distrust the owners. Also, I don't expect the owners were too concerned about putting more games on a network that isn't available to many NFL fans.