<P> The NFL Network's coverage was not the first time that NFL games were covered on Thursday or Saturday . Prior to the new contract, ESPN carried a handful of sporadic Thursday night games (usually those displaced from Sunday night) and the broadcast networks used to air several national games on Saturday afternoons in mid-to - late December after the college football regular season ended . Incidentally, the only reason the league is even allowed to televise football games on Saturday night stems from a legal loophole: the league's antitrust exemption, the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, was written when the NFL regular season ended in mid-December, and as such, it contains specific language that prohibits televising NFL games in most markets on Friday nights and all day on Saturdays between the second week of September and the second week of December, to protect high school and college football . Since most high school and college seasons have ended by mid-December, other than bowl games, there has been little desire to close this loophole, even though the regular season has expanded well beyond mid-December since the law's passage . </P> <P> In 2005, when the NFL negotiated a new set of television contracts, Comcast - owned OLN offered to pay $450 million for an eight - year contract to carry NFL prime time games . In exchange, Comcast planned to add NFL Network to its digital cable lineup . The channel was added, but NFL Network decided to air the games itself, foregoing a rights fee . The other television deals generated $3.735 billion per year over an eight - year period for CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV (owner of the out - of - market sports package NFL Sunday Ticket). </P> <P> Thursday Night Football debuted on November 23, 2006, with the Kansas City Chiefs handing the visiting Denver Broncos a 19--10 Thanksgiving defeat . Each of the game broadcasts were titled either Thursday Night Football or Saturday Night Football, depending on the night on which it aired . This format carried over to the 2007 season . </P> <P> Starting in 2008, NFL Network eliminated all but one of the Saturday night games and started their Thursday night package three weeks earlier . This was done to accommodate the earlier schedule and the league's antitrust exemption that prohibits Saturday games from being held for most of the season . In the following season, all references to Saturday Night Football were dropped, and any games that are not played on Thursday (such as in 2016, two Christmas weekend games and an NFL International Series game) have since been branded as "special editions" of Thursday Night Football, and later Thursday Night Special or NFL Network Special . The Thanksgiving matchup was moved from NFL Network to NBC's Sunday Night Football package as part of the new broadcast contract after the 2011 season . During Super Bowl week in 2012, it was announced that the Thursday Night Football package would expand from eight to 13 games and air on NFL Network, again soliciting and rejecting offers from Turner Sports and Comcast . </P>

Who played the first thursday night nfl game
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