This is not a new topic being discussed this year. The owners have formally been discussing adding two more games onto the regular season for over a year now. The proposal is to keep the same scheduling, just removing two of the preseason games and replacing them with regular season games. Essentially, starting the same time in the year, but having only two preseason games followed by the 18 regular season games. What does this mean?
The owners have discussed the idea of expanding the regular season for some time now. The basic idea is that an 18 game season will bring in more revenue than a 16 game season. Preseason games rarely have much following and you will also receive more in TV revenue and ticket revenue if two preseason games were replaced by two regular season games. With the economy being the way it is, everyone is looking for ways to make a little more money. Most players are not on board with this proposal.
The players union are against the 18 game proposal for several reasons. First of all, 18 games would be more taxing on their bodies than 16 games would be. With the preseason games, the starters don't usually play more than two quarters, and hardly ever going full out to save themselves for when the season starts. They also feel like they would need more than two games in the preseason to get ready for the regular season when so many players move around in free agency and need to learn new systems. Also the coaches don't like not having the two extra games to evaluate players that are on the bubble for roster spots. They need game action to really evaluate how good a player is. The only way that the players union would agree to an 18 game season is if rosters were allowed to be expanded to account for injuries.
It appears than the owners feel that an expanded season is all but a done deal. What do you think? Should the NFL go to an 18 game season?
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