'Thursday Night Football' schedule: Here's why there's no Week 17 Thursday game in 2021 season

Fans will have to wait until Sunday to get their NFL fix

For the first time in the 2021 season, there will not be an NFL game played on Thursday night. The reason is simple: the NFL only scheduled Thursday night games through Week 16, with last week's game between the Titans and 49ers concluding Thursday night games for the 2021 season. 

Unlike the last two weeks, there will be no games on Saturday, either. All but one of the NFL's Week 17 games will be played on Sunday. The only outlier is the Steelers' Monday night game against the Cleveland Browns in what will likely be Ben Roethlisberger's final home game as Pittsburgh's quarterback. Pittsburgh's game against Cleveland will be the final Monday night game of the 2021 regular season, but the NFL will flex a Saturday night doubleheader on Jan. 8. The games will be chosen following Week 17's action and have postseason implications. The rest of the games will take place on Sunday, Jan. 9, including a yet determined prime-time game that will wrap up the 2021 regular season.

This postseason, for the first time ever, there will be a Monday night playoff game during the wild card round. The NFL's expanded opening playoff round, dubbed last year as Super Wild Card Weekend, will be capped off with a Monday night game for at least the next five years. 

Starting in 2022, Amazon Prime will become the NFL's exclusive "Thursday Night Football" partner. "Thursday Night Football" has been previously aired on CBS, NBC and Fox. 

"Thursday Night Football" was launched on Nov. 23, 2006. In 2012, the NFL moved "Thursday Night Football" from eight to 13 games, with a ninth game added in 2014.