It's not because there needs to be. Thursday nights have viable television options. Isn't Seinfeld on tomorrow night? I never miss it.
It's not because players and coaches want their normal work schedule altered. My own arduous schedule of study, computer modeling, and meditation before guessing who'll win by what score was completely thrown off by the change. I usually spend Monday and the early part of Tuesday recovering from the bruising I've absorbed before game-planning for my Thursday column.
No, there's a Thursday game because the NFL wants you to watch the NFL Network, which is a smart move by the NFL. Cable TV channels can be very profitable enterprises. The problem, of course, is that you might not have the NFL Network. Oh, and you might not care about the Bears and 49ers. Did I say that out loud? I meant: "Call your cable operator and demand the NFL Network so you can bask in the celebration that is sure to be the Bears and the 49ers!"
The unintended but happy consequence of the Thursday game is, of course, another chance to choose, at random, the final score of a contest between two privately held corporations whose concern for you is only that you continue to patronize their business and related enterprises!
Sounds good enough to me!
Let's prognosticate! Be warned. I'm totally off my normal precise rhythm.
Tomorrow night
Bears at 49ers (-3)
Maybe the Bears will seek to prove to one of the All-Time Great Bears that they're still the Monsters of the Midway. Highly doubtful. Maybe Mike Singletary will have the 49ers all fired up to prove to the Bears that Singletary has made the Niners as tough as the Bears used to be. Extremely unlikely. So here's your story line: The Bears got exposed by Arizona, they're about as good as San Francisco, but San Francisco's at home. It ain't gonna win the National Book Award, but it's all I've got.
49ers 27, Bears 17. "Singletary's gonna teach his old team a lesson."
Sunday
Jaguars at Jets (-61/2)
Here's a lousy choice to make: The Jags are utterly impossible to understand. They're either good or they stink out loud. The Jets, meanwhile, are neither good nor do they stink. So which team gives you enough faith that you'll take your lunch money, eschew lunch, and try to double your lunch money in order that you can use your winnings to buy lunch for you and somebody else on Monday? The risk is no lunch at all.
Jets 24, Jags 10. I don't like to eat on Mondays anyway.
Broncos (-4) at Redskins
The Broncos have absorbed two pummelings in the last two weeks, but they can't be as bad as all that, can they? And the Redskins, last I checked - which was about a month ago - are utterly feeble, right? Don't answer. I'm going with it.
Broncos 30, Redskins 13. Unless this is a trap, set for lamebrain freelance game-pickers sucker enough to walk right in.
Bengals (+7) at Steelers
The Bengals gave me third-degree burns by stomping Baltimore. Those dastardly Bengals. Pittsburgh did the same thing to me by knocking the snot right out of Denver at Denver. Rotten, rotten Steelers. There is no reliable logic on which to base this pick, and my personal grudges offset each other. So let's go with "Division game in which one team is coming off a short workweek." Isn't that what an "expert" would say?
Your turn: Grade the Eagles 
