Goodell: Four preseason games not necessary

[Kontradiction]

Neither four preseason games nor 18 regular season games is necessary.

 

[Deus Irae]

Then lengthen the Rosters with 8 more Active Players.

No

 

[XLIX]

And make the Super Bowl fall on the Sunday before Presidents’ Day. That would turn Super Bowl Sunday into something mystical.

That would probably be the consequence of an 18 week season... which sets up the Armageddon scenario of the Super Bowl falling on Valentine's Day once every 7 years (on average).....

 

[luuked]

The best idea I've heard to at least compromise on this issue is to play 18 game season, but players would only be able to be active for a maximum of 16 games.

Again and don't take this personally as you didn't come up with it. But this is the absolutely most silly idea out there when it comes to more games. Right next to a "max snap count" which was also proposed by some genius.

Increasing the roster size will only do so much because the wear and tear on your starters on the e.g. OL will not change. There are some players who are expected to play nearly 100% snaps no matter if you have 30, 40 or 80 active players.

The main remedy to adding more games is also the most obvious and simplest: add more rest via BYE weeks in between. Which if staggered correctly would lengthen the season by itself already without introducing additional strain on players.

****, things like TNF are a bigger health risk than adding two 2 games.

 

[Ring 6]

This makes me wonder if expanding to an 18 game season is even a good idea from the owner's $$$ perspective.

Players are obviously going to demand 12.5% pay raise as a starting point in negotiations.

Owner's are going to at best get a 12.5% increase in regular season TV and ticket sales.

If the number of playoff games stays the same that means that the TV revenue will actually increase by less than 12.5% at best. At best is probably and important statement as it seems likely that increasing the season length will have at less some negative impact in per game fan interest. Basically at some point fans will get burnt out on watch NFL every week. Especially if its December and your team is 3-14 and has no chance at making the playoffs.

Increasing the season length won't increase interest in jersey and other memorabilia sales.

If the players also demand a few % more in overall revenue are the owner's actually gaining anything?

The players would get 12.5% more because their share of revenue increasing 12.5% increases 12.5%. They get roughly half the revenue, so each side would increase 12.5%. Perhaps I misread but your posts seemed to imply the entire revenue increase would go to the players.

 

[PatriotsReign]

I have zero interest in expanding games from 16 to 18. The season is long enough as it is.

The NFL isn’t like any other sport regarding wear and tear on the human body

 

[Triumph]

Translation - We lose money on pre season games.

 

[Triumph]

21 - 0

 

[varjao]

In terms of roster building I believe 4 games aren't too excessive. First 2 games to figure things out, 3rd game closest thing to a real game and the 4th game to define the last pieces of the chess and do some fine tuning.

For a coach like BB the 4th game may be more important than the 1st, but for the majority of the (garbage) coaches no, so I guess if there is a game to drop it would be week 4.

That said, there are alternatives to drop 2 games, like having mandatory joint practices instead with parameters well defined of how they should be, and a 30-40 minutes game in the last day for all players, 1st, 2nd and 3rd stringers.

The pre-season remains 4 weeks with teams playing alternating weeks, either 1 and 3 or 2 and 4.

 

[Triumph]

Report: NFL Owners May Ease Marijuana Restrictions In Exchange for 18-Game Season

 

[BobDigital]

18 games is just too many. I don't care if they add an extra bye week. It just hurts player safety too much. If they try to push 18 games that laughs in the face of all the other changes they've made for player safety so far and proves for them: Profit > Safety.

 

[RelocatedPatFan]

Ask for a larger % of the revenue, lifetime health coverage and one other thing you really don't want and settle for the first 2?

Assuming players are interested. Glad it's up to them and not us fans. Would love more football, but I think 16 games is fine. As a side note, do they have a plan on how the extra 2 games would get settled?

6 games in conference
4 games AFC
4 games NFC
2 games - same seed in non-played AFC division

So, some rotation where you play 2 of the 3 remaining divisions in the NFC?

 

[Nehalem]

The players would get 12.5% more because their share of revenue increasing 12.5% increases 12.5%. They get roughly half the revenue, so each side would increase 12.5%. Perhaps I misread but your posts seemed to imply the entire revenue increase would go to the players.

I am saying that the overall revenue would not increase 12.5%. This is due to the fact that only the regular season TV package would be increasing in value. Things like playoff tv package and memorabilia sales would still be worth the same.

In fact just the existence of the bye week screws things up. There are 17 regular season tv weeks, but only 16 games per team. So if you increase to 19 tv weeks, you actually only get an increase in revenue of 11.8%.

And we haven't even factored in the likely average decrease in fan engagement over the 17th and 18th game.

So basically in order to make the same amount per game players would have to demand an increase share of the overall revenue.

 

[jah]

Report: NFL Owners May Ease Marijuana Restrictions In Exchange for 18-Game Season

There wouldn't be enough weed in the world to justify that concession.

 

[moosekill]

I really wonder what the players think about it. Most of what we hear is posturing from both sides. Both sides want to make more money, if the players play 2 less preseason games and 2 more regular season games, get an extra bye week, get paid 10% more and get to smoke weed without being tested, I bet you would have a large group that would think it was the most awesome thing ever. dood.

 

[Spiral]

I heard some idiots talking about how boring and unnecessary the 4th preseason game is, as if by shortening the pre-season, you'd eliminate that game. There will always be a final preseason game, and there will never be many starters playing in it. Their comments were moronic.

I find it somewhat odd that there are many, many draftniks out there who spend hours and hours watching tape of college players, then complain about there being too many preseason games. What chance does a fan with a normal amount of spare time have to see these guys actually play?

 

[Triumph]

There wouldn't be enough weed in the world to justify that concession.

The marketing potential is endless.

Weed stands at stadiums.

 

[XLIX]

I have zero interest in expanding games from 16 to 18. The season is long enough as it is.

This I have to disagree with. The NFL season is maddeningly short. I am not saying I favor 18 games because I have concerns over player health and safety, but the NFL regular season is 2-3 full months shorter than each of the other 3 sports, with a shorter postseason than NHL and NBA.

 

[XLIX]

I heard some idiots talking about how boring and unnecessary the 4th preseason game is, as if by shortening the pre-season, you'd eliminate that game. There will always be a final preseason game, and there will never be many starters playing in it. Their comments were moronic.

Not necessarily. If the final preseason game is a full 2 weeks before the 1st regular season game, I think we would see starters play in it.

I think it would be quite easy for every team to play 2 games in what we now consider preseason weeks 1, 2 and 3 (so each team would have a bye one of those weeks) and all teams get another bye for week 4. So there are 3 weeks of preseason (not including the HOF game) TV watching.

 

[patfanken]

Again and don't take this personally as you didn't come up with it. But this is the absolutely most silly idea out there when it comes to more games. Right next to a "max snap count" which was also proposed by some genius.

Increasing the roster size will only do so much because the wear and tear on your starters on the e.g. OL will not change. There are some players who are expected to play nearly 100% snaps no matter if you have 30, 40 or 80 active players.

The main remedy to adding more games is also the most obvious and simplest: add more rest via BYE weeks in between. Which if staggered correctly would lengthen the season by itself already without introducing additional strain on players.

****, things like TNF are a bigger health risk than adding two 2 games.

I NEVER take it personally when there is an honest disagreement. That's why these boards exist. I also agree that expanding the roster size would help but not expiate the problem I agree that playing 18 games in the regular season would be excessive. Like you said the wear and tear of 2 more games would start to see a dramatic increase in injuries.

But that being said, in the proposal I reported, the number of the games for the players would remain exactly the same. The number of snaps would stay about what it is now as well as the number of collisions a player would take.

Your idea of simply adding more bye weeks wouldn't do any of those things. While the "rest" might help, adding 2 more games means adding 120-160 more collisions for someone like Thuney who plays all the time. That can't be good.

BTW- I'm definitely opposed to the 18 game season in theory. Just too many games. However if it is going to happen, then limiting the number of games a player plays in those 18 games, increasing the roster by 12% and changing the antiquated drug policies would be the best way to at least mitigate the damage.

Also it seems to be implied that teams would swap the 2 preseason games for 2 real games. Here's the problem with that. That would mean that teams would lose TWO full weeks of team preparation. Given the limited time coaches get to work with player to begin with, the quality of play at the start of the season would drop even further.

So at the end of all this overly long post here's where we stand. We both agree that this is a bad idea, but IF an 18 game season is an inevitability then YOU would propose simply adding 2 more well timed bye weeks to mitigate the excess. While I would put a limit on the number of games a player could be active for. Does that sum it up? A re there other alternatives that have been talked about? Let me know