According to reports, the proposal would be presented by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to team owners in May. The increase to an 18-game schedule could possibly begin as early as the 2011 season.
If the owners sign off on proposal, then the next step would be when the league sits down at the collective bargaining negotiation table with the players union. The current agreement is set to expire after the 2010 season.
From an economic standpoint, expanding the season would increase revenue for the league.
Last month, the league cut 169 staff jobs and Goodell took a voluntary pay cut. Extra games would mean more ticket sales for teams, and the league receive bigger deals from the TV networks because it turned pre-season games into regular-season ones.
Besides the financial windfall for the league and its teams, shortening the pre-season games by a game or two would make fans happy. In this difficult economy, fans shouldn’t have to pay for expensive tickets to watch meaningless action, but would instead get their money’s worth watching a regular season game.
Football is a violent sport and injuries are going to happen whether it be in the preseason or during the regular season. For many it is harder to accept and understand this when a player like Osi Umenyiora is carted off a season-ending knee injury in a preseason game rather than against the Cowboys in a Week 11 contest which really matters.
There are some that will argue about coaches needing the four preseason games as a way to evaluate non-starters and find diamonds in the rough, as well as, giving starters the time to get back to game speed.
Those are all valid points, but what will coaches learn about a backup in a few preseason games, they can’t pick up while the players are in mini-camps, training camp and at practices?
For the starters, they are constantly training year around, participating in voluntary and involuntary workouts. Also, veteran players already are familiar with their team’s offensive or defensive system and see limited action in pre-season games anyway.
With them doing enough in the off-season to prep for the regular season, a minimal of two preseason games should allow them to get their timing right for the actual season.
When the season does start and teams find themselves in an 0-2 or 0-3 hole, they aren’t going to feel like the season is over because of a slow start. Those extra two games may be what they need to make that final push to get into the playoffs.
Like last season, parity in the league made games in the final week meaningful because of teams battling for playoff spots. And prolonging it by two more weeks shouldn’t change that and could make the final game or two even more interesting, which is going draw more fan interest.
More games mean more football to watch. How can anyone not want that from our national pastime?
n Contact sports reporter Corey Davis at 997-3111, ext. 44; e-mail cdavis@yourdailyjournal.com
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