NFL Imperialism: Thoughts on Season Expansion

August 31st, 2010

By Ryan Brumley, KLSU Sports Reporter

After years of speculation and rumor, Roger Goodell announced Wednesday afternoon that he and the 32 NFL owners have considered eliminating two preseason games and expanded the regular season from 16 to 18 games.   My initial response was sift and simple: FINALLY.  Not only does this brilliant move expand the regular season, but it reduces the preseason to two games.  In case you have never watched preseason football, the only two things that keep the average fan interested in the preseason the last 5 years has been a) when is Brett Favre Coming back, and b) which extremely important player to their team is out for the rest of the season because of a freak injury they suffered in a meaningless game.  The expansion of the regular season will be a fantastic move for the owners, players, and most importantly, the fans.

Nevertheless, let’s consider some of the effects of an 18 game regular season.   For the owners, the move is a no brainer.  The motivation behind this drastic change is simple, More Money: more money for the owners, more money for the league, and possibly more money for the players (depending how well they negotiate the new CBA).  In an era where most fans can watch the game from home on their giant HD televisions with multiple games on at once complete with live fantasy updates, four preseason games are a bore of epic proportions.   The owners had to come up with more ways to keep fans in the stands and more meaningful football games were a great solution to that problem.

For players, the expansion could be a nightmare.  Another 2 weeks of regular season play obviously leads to players being more vulnerable to injuries, shortened careers and a variety of other health concerns.  With all the latest reports on concussions and other head injuries, this is not an issue to be taken lightly.  In order to combat the player’s health concerned, another bye week should be added into the 18 game season.  This would only expand the current preseason/season model by one game (Old plan: 4 preseason-16 regular season 1 bye 21 total  New plan 2 preseason-18 regular season-2 bye 22 total) one increasing the season by one week.  This bye week would give players another week for their bodies to recover, their injuries to heal, and their teams to improve.  Players also will more than likely be able to increase a generous salary increase under this system, which will hopefully led to a better product on the field.

Most importantly, the proposed expansion benefits the fans more than anyone else.  Many of expansions’ critics have complained that expanding football will be detrimental to other sports.  Look, pushing the NFL season one more week into February.  At this time in the sports universe, very little of major interest is going on.  Expanding the Football season one more week is not going to lessen spring training, regular season NBA, or even conference games in NCAA basketball.  All those things don’t really that much anyway.  Things that do matter are three more weeks of regular season football to enjoy.  More intriguing matching, more interesting story lines, more drama, more victory, more passion, more excitement, more of all the reason we as fans watch football in the first place.  Football has always been a game of the people, and this is what the people want.  So let there more games I say, let football follow in one of the most American of ideals, Bigger is Better.

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