Eighteen games are better than none

   When the NFL goes to an 18-game regular season schedule, fans will complain and the media will become indignant. The success of the league is legendary. So why change?

 

    Because unlike Major League Baseball, where the creation of the designated hitter still is subject to debate, the NFL has been a testament to change. Remember when the quarterback wasn’t protected, when defensive backs could use their hands, when the season consisted of 14 games or of only 12?

 

   I do, but the memory is as hazy as life before compact discs or the Internet.

 

If I were making the call, I’d keep the regular season at 16 and eliminate two preseason games. Exhibitions are a waste of money for fans and an unnecessary risk for established players. To get hurt in a game that doesn’t count in the standings is how the cliche insult to injury was established.  An even greater insult is to charge fans regular season prices to watch a glorified practice.

 

    NFL people have told me that they need four games to evaluate players. They’ll adjust.

 

The first face I saw when I heard the league was contemplating the 18-game schedule was that of former Carolina Panther fullback Brad Hoover. Hoover made his living stuffing defenders who were much bigger than he was. The human body was not designed to accommodate such a pounding, not even Hoover’s.

 

    Brad played from 2000-09. Had the Panthers played 18 games during his tenure, he would have been cut, or forced to retire, long before the 2010 season. His damaged body would have insisted.

 

    Adding two games will shorten careers and probably lengthen rosters. More players will be lost to injury. Quality reserves will be required to replace them.

 

    You can never be too rich, and as much money as the NFL makes, it can make more. Exhibitions often don’t sell out and some are blacked out. Regular season games generate more money for the league and more money for the players¸ players that do not receive a fat game check for preseason work.

 

    Those lucrative game checks could have an impact on the labor impasse that management and labor rapidly are approaching.

 

    The players won the last round of negotiations. To keep the peace, owners capitulated. Don’t think they wanted to send retiring commissioner Pete Tagliabue out with a gold watch and a lockout.

 

    The owners will not capitulate this time. Owners in effect will ask players to give back some of what they won. This is like asking a country that won a piece of land to return it. Players will dig in. Negotiations will turn nasty.

 

And a sport that has become so staggeringly popular that most of us can’t even tell you who No. 2 is will suffer. As much as we love the NFL, we can live a full life without it. Such a life would be painful; I can’t imagine the fall and winter without football, or the summer without thinking about football.

 

    But, technically, we would survive. We’d fill our time with other pursuits.

 

    The NFL prefers that we not be aware of this. But if there is lockout and players no longer play we will get by.

 

    Ask Major League Baseball, whose post-strike motto was, and is: Plenty of good seats are available.

 

    If two additional game checks appease players and avoid a labor dispute then, sure, go to 18 games.

 

    Many of us will complain. But we’ll complain much more loudly if our beloved NFL is taken away.

 

 

Comments

[Altheus]

I'm a fan...but I never go to Sunday games for religious reasons. So, hopefully games will be added on other days of the week, if we must add two. A Tuesday or Wednesday throughout the year somewhere? Why not?

[MichaelProcton]

Because that would ruin their schedule for the weeks before and after. It's difficult to make an NFL schedule as it is.

[bigjohn]

You are all over it. 16 regular season games, 2 preseason games would be perfect.

Once again, greed will override common sense and we'll be left with an inferior product because of injuries and other issues you mentioned.

[DBIGCAT]

Why do you think two additional game checks will appease players? All that means is that their annual salary is divided into 18 game checks instead of 16 - it means no additional salary.

[Kravon1]

This is a win for the fans and owners. A loss for the players - but if they dont like it then nobody is stopping them from retiring.

Backload the the last 3 weeks with all in division games so most teams have something to play for and this will work.

[Greg]

Who would complain?

I'm all for more games!

[Mike]

Don't go to games for religious reasons? Dear god ...

[Buckley]

What true fan is going to complain about a few less preseason games, a quicker start to the season, and an additional two regular season games? This is the second article I've read of yours today and you still maintain this pompous know-it-all attitude when I'm sitting here wondering if you have some dirt on the sports editor and that's how you got your job. Sorry if that was mean. This is how I feel.

[Unions Suck]

SICKENING SELFISH GREEDY SPOILED ROTTEN UNION PUNKS.

Pro sports is the ONLY sector in the US economy that has not suffered layoffs or cutbacks YET mainstream America has seen massive doses with half of labor forces curtailed and the worst Depression in history that began in 2006 and is 4.5 yrs old and getting worse.

Have pro athletes who continue to pile on millions and millions individually been affected by the depression in their greedy selfish ego-manicalism? Who pays them? The owners? Ah contraire. YOU the general public pay them with higher rates for cable tv, food, gas, clothing, etc.

And these union punks will bitch and whine about 2 extra games?

This is a job for Congress. Outlaw this idiot union and demand a cutback for pay for the spoiled brat whiny crybabies who pretend to be liberals who care for people and in the san token raping the general public for their outrageous salaries.

Why not have year-round pro sports? Who in the work force gets to be off 8 months of the year and work only 4 anyway?

And they whine? Peppers was pulling in a million game last year. Most are making a minimum of 100k a game.

This goes for all sports. Year round professional sports. Non-stop. Play a 50 game season with 2 weeks off non-stop.

By having year round non-stop pro sports then there will be real competition and best will win plus maybe they will work harder for their money.

Wouldnt it be great to have the NFL on 52 weeks year along with all other sports? There would be more teams and pro football or basketball baseball on 24/7/365.

Then and only then you will get your moneys worth out of these overgrown spoiled rotten greedy punks.

[Svelte]

As much as I look forward to the season, I have no interest in more games or games played mid-week. Too much of a good thing. Keep fans excited and looking forward to the weekend! Also, what fans could travel to away games if they sheduled them during the week? No sir No sir

[Joe The Plummer]

Yea thats true. They play 4 mos a year 16 weeks & then only on weekends one day a week for 3 hours ... in the NFL and their pay keeps going up up up into the stratus ... while yours keep going down down down to hell ... and you supposed to feel sorry for them? lol ... Bless their poor little pea pickin union scumbag overworked hearts... Gee whiz where can Mr and Mrs Joe 6pack get a bigtime sweet job like that?????????????????????
NFL every weekend ... 52 weeks a year.... EXCELLENT .... sounds like a WINNER BABY !!!! OH HELL YEA !!!! Make all them MOFOZ work more for what WE pay them ...

[joe mama]

Its called capitalism... the players have something you (we) don't: talent. While the economy has tanked overall, the NFL has grown. Why should players suffer while their owners get richer?

Also, 18 games sounds good until you realize that more of the real stars will be hur by playoff time. Two extra regular seasaon games will lead to 18 good games with backups playing in playoff games more frequently instead of 16 great ones and the exciting playoff we want.

[Siciliano]

I am going to give this a try… more for my parents than me actlaluy – they need to cut down on expenses and also need a way to watch tv while traveling starting next year for their retirement. Of course, we will appreciate the savings too – can’t wait to make the phone call to the cable company and tell them to shove their bill where the sun doesn’t shine!