N F L Wants an 18 Game Season (preseason, pay, coaches)
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You can see the day coming when the league will decide that no preseason games are actually necessary. They'll go right to a 20-game season.
As to what might be good for the fans, nobody should delude themselves. The fans don't enter the equation except as ratings points. The NFL, given a choice, will unerringly and automatically do what's good for television. Period. Next case!
Keep it at 16 games, reduce the pre-season to three weeks, and have a second bye week to make up for the loss of one week's of preseaon games. NFL is a brutal enough game at 16 weeks to sustain injuries through another 2 weeks.
I heard Phil Simms say something very interesting once. He said by looking at NFL Films, he could almost instinctively tell by the speed of the game what week the game was being played in. He said the speed of the players and the ferocity of the hitting is much greater at the beginning of the season. Toward the end of the season, the distance of the runs is shorter, you see far less hitting, etc. He said the effect of a player around week 16 is the same as being in a car accident into a wall at 30 mph. I love NFL football, but you also have to consider how much damage a human being's body can sustain over that course of time.
Vision Quest wants the NFL to have an 18 game season as well. I think the players would like it more than they know. They seem to of liked the transfer too 16 games, they are pros, and the best teams will overcome the adversity.
I don't think it's bad because of injuries, though I was forced to vote that way.
I think it's bad because I love records. It goes back to the 14 to 16 game season. Records become ultra modern and the difficulty of comparing eras exists to a greater degree.
Though I am a fan of cutting the preseason down to 2 games - that's certainly better for the fans who no longer get stuck paying regular season prices for another set of preseason games.
Keep it at 16 games, reduce the pre-season to three weeks, and have a second bye week to make up for the loss of one week's of preseaon games. NFL is a brutal enough game at 16 weeks to sustain injuries through another 2 weeks.
I heard Phil Simms say something very interesting once. He said by looking at NFL Films, he could almost instinctively tell by the speed of the game what week the game was being played in. He said the speed of the players and the ferocity of the hitting is much greater at the beginning of the season. Toward the end of the season, the distance of the runs is shorter, you see far less hitting, etc. He said the effect of a player around week 16 is the same as being in a car accident into a wall at 30 mph. I love NFL football, but you also have to consider how much damage a human being's body can sustain over that course of time.
I agree, 18 games would be too much for the players bodies to handle. For the teams that go into the playoffs it would be even more brutal. I know the pre-season games are important for the coaches but they are incredibly boring to watch on TV...lol. I wish they would have two major scrimmages (not televised) and then maybe just one or two pre-season games on TV.
It doesn't seem that many years ago that buying the extra exhibition game tickets were optional (yea, I'm old!)
And I will call them exhibition games, thank you!
That's what they are, is exhibition. I know the league dislikes it, but I dislike the league.
The NFL is the ONLY sport that NEVER gives you a break on ticket prices. I sat in Sun Devil Stadium, getting cancer, year after year...and I'm not locked into any prices. I pay the same high prices all the bandwaggoners do....I wish they'd at least give you the Exhibition games half off. For goodness sakes they want their STs paid in full by early April, anymore.
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