Simple poll, do you want the NFL to expand from a 16 game schedule to an 18 game one?
No. I think it’s unnecessary and I think it’s an act of total hypocrisy for the NFL owners to profess concern over concussions and head injuries, including the sometimes inconsistent penalties we saw this past season, and then propose the season by extended by 12.5 percent, which means more hits, more exposure, and more injuries.
If they want another week of revenue, add a second bye week. I’d rather they didn’t, but I’d rather have that than no football.
I hate the idea of the 18 game schedule.
Instead of 4 meaningless preseason games, you’re now going to have more teams phoning it in during the last couple weeks of the regular season. Didn’t we see enough 3rd string quarterbacks last year?
It drags out the season too long. You’re probably going to see an extra bye week added. I’m sure the start of the season won’t be pushed back as the NFL loves that Thursday night opening game right after Labor Day. Currently the season ends the last week of December or the first week of January. Now, the regular season will stretch on into late January.
I love how the playoffs start right after the holiday season ends. The buzzkill of back to work January drudgery is made better by knowing playoff football is starting.
A later season means weather comes into play much more. Snow games won’t be a novelty, we’ll get even more crappy games played in bad weather.
Also, this will probably mean more international games. You know as well as I do that the Giants, Jets, Cowboys, Patriots, or Steelers aren’t giving up a home game. So, that means Cardinals, Rams, and Seahawks fans will lose more home games and the team is stuck with a long trip to Europe.
While I know the NFL doesn’t care about other sports, this will also punish the NHL and NBA all star games. They can either move their all star games to right after a late February Super Bowl, running into college basketball or play their all star games going up against NFL playoff games.
It’s not broke, so don’t fix it. And yes, I agree it sucks to make fans pay for preseason games as part of a season ticket package. But I’m not and probably never will be a season ticket holder. I also agree preseason football is boring, but there is no law requiring me to watch it. There isn’t much on in August especially if baseball doesn’t have some decent pennant races. If I’m given the choice of preseason NFL or the Little League World Series, I think I’ll just turn the tv off after the first quarter of the NFL game!
My biggest problem with it is one of timing – you’re either going to have to start the regular season earlier or run it later.
Earlier is off the table – you simply cannot have football before Labor Day, and you doubly-cannot have it ON Labor Day Weekend…too much other stuff going on.
And if you run the season longer, then the Super Bowl is no longer the first Sunday in February, and dammit, I like having the Super Bowl fall on my birthday weekend!
This is the answer. Give each team two bye weeks: one in the first half of the season and one in the second half. I’d prefer if they did this by getting rid of a preseason game, but that won’t get the NFL the extra week of commercial revenue (which is most definitely the driving force behind the push for the 18 game schedule). In addition to selling more commercials, each team will get another week to rest up, making the games at the end of the season more competitive.
The NFL’s opening weekend was on Labor Day weekend until about a decade or so ago. They came to the realization that, indeed, people had other things they were doing on that “last gasp of summer” weekend, and, so, they pushed the season one week later.
Speaking as a British NFL fan, I love the International game - the only chance we get to see a real game, that means something, in the flesh.
I would bet pounds to pennies though that the new CBA will kill it. No one, with the exception of the NFL as a governing union likes it - the owners don’t like it, the coaches don’t like it, the players don’t like it and I get the sense that the ordinary US based fan doesn’t like it either. Seems like the text book type of thing you could pen into the CBA right now and no one would be unhappy (apart from me and the thousands of other Europeans that go to that game).
Plus, since college football eliminated their late August kickoff classics, so now they take center stage on Labor Day weekend.
The NFL briefly had a 2nd bye week, but got rid of it after a few seasons.
They can have their cake and eat it too. Some teams currently play 5 pre-season games, most play 4. Move the start of them all back to when the extra ones are, and set them all at 4 pre-season. This gives them room for an extra bye week. Though, honestly, I don’t see the need for any more than 2-3, especially if they’re going to keep charging full ticket price to attend them.
The extra bye week gives them one whole extra week of the season without any additional games. This means one more week of prime-time games, etc. It also goes far in helping with the health of the players, which means we’ll have more of the starters in more often and more rested up, which should also lead to a better product overall.
That said, I do realize that 18 games will probably happen eventually, but I just don’t see the point. It’s usually pretty clear who 8-10 of the play off spots are going to by week 12 or 13, so we end up with a lot of the better teams not really trying. We may have more games, but it dilutes the importance of the games, wears out the players, and risks more injury. We’ll start seeing a lot more players retiring 2-3 years earlier because of the extra games. You’ll also see a dilution of talent, because you simply won’t be able to have a feature back hold up for 18 games, you’ll need 2-3 RBs in rotation to stand up to that sort of season. So you’ll not only have less name recognition, but you’ll need larger rosters, probably at least 60 players, which will also increase expenses at a rate not too far behind the expected revenue gain. So, I just don’t see it making sense from any perspective except for the short-term money grab.
Regardless, I’m not sure how much it matters. If the NFL loses any regular season games to this work stoppage, particularly given the state of the economy, I think it will be a long time before the league recovers the lost ground.
I’m not a fan of the idea but I would definitely go for it if they promised to land the Super Bowl on Presidents Day Sunday. The Super Bowl on the Sunday of a three day weekend would make Presidents Day a bigger holiday than the 4th of July.
Heh. I assume you mean in number of people not working.
I agee with dalej42. This is just an abomination that the owners want because of their unbridled greed. We should do away with domed stadia too. Football is a game for manly men and should always be played in the current elements.
I think the schedule length is perfect as it is, and plus, the arrangement of the schedule is perfect…starting the weekend after Labor Day and ending around New Years. I think in general if it went to an 18 game schedule you’d end up with more meaningless games rather than having more meaningful ones.
The season should last 40games. Then a week or 2 off followed by Superbowl. Then a couple weeks off and restart.
I don’t even like Saturday games, Thursday games and feel that the NFL’s keys to success are:
- gambling
- Fantasy Football
- Leave 'em wanting more
Anything that works against the above is bad for the NFL.
Haven’t the owners been claiming that they’re pushing an 18-game season because the fans want it?
A glance at the poll results seems to put the lie to that.
That sounds more like basketball where the finals are sometimes interupted by the preseason.
I wouldn’t mind seeing 18 real games, I just doubt that it would work. On one hand, 16 games is a pretty short season but that’s still over 3 months.
I really don’t care too much one way or the other. The major downside of adding games is the injury thing, and that really is a problem, with the rate that players get injured.
I do kind of like the 17 game idea for a few reasons. If you add 2 weeks to the regular season, you can have an extra game and an extra bye week. You can schedule a neutral-site game for every team in the league, so no teams lose a home game for an international game, and the league gets to continue with its expansion kick.