Goodell eyes 2012 for 18-game season

[Philagape]

NFL moving forward with 18-game season
ATLANTA (AP) - NFL owners have shown widespread support for going to an 18-game schedule but want to implement the change as part of a new labor agreement.
Commissioner Roger Goodell says owners see two more regular-season games - and two fewer preseason games - as the most logical way to enhance revenues in a difficult economic environment. He says it will be one of the main issues in talks on reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.
...
Goodell says the league is targeting 2012 for the 18-game season.

[Prov401]

Are you in favor of another 2 regular season games? I'm not, for the simple fact that it will mess with the history of all single season and career records. If something should be done with the schedules, it should be elimnating 2 pre-season games.

Thoughts?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5497448

[snow1989]

I'm not in favor of increasing the season. Purely a money grab in my opinion and the players are already banged up by then. Also some of the division races could be lopsided with some later games between teams being more pointless than they are now. I'd drop 2 preseason games but allow the teams to scrimmage against 3 other teams if so desired. So buffalo could scrimmage cleveland, either one of the NY teams and maybe say pittsburgh for 2 days. If they want to charge a bit extra to see the scrimmages, then so be it.

[better days]

Are you in favor of another 2 regular season games? I'm not, for the simple fact that it will mess with the history of all single season and career records. If something should be done with the schedules, it should be elimnating 2 pre-season games.

Thoughts?

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5497448

My thoughts are there used to be only 12 games played in a season. going from 16 to 18 won't mess with history anymore than going from 12 games to 14 games which the NFL did, or from 14 to 16 games which is where we are today.

[PromoTheRobot]

They will have to have two bye weeks, and allow teams to carry larger rosters. If all they want is more games to show, it might be better to add playoff teams. Qualify 8 teams instead of 6.

PTR

[Luisito23]

Yeah, I agree with Robot. Glad to have 18 games, but I wish they added 2 more playoff teams.) :blamelog:

[PromoTheRobot]

Here is my brilliant compromise that will lengthen the NFL season but actually make players play two less games than they do now. I said it was brilliant.

1) Reduce the pre-season to 2 games and maybe a scrimmage.
2) Add a second bye week.
3) Add Tuesday and/or Wednesday night games.
4) Have teams coming off a bye play those games.
5) Add 1 more playoff team per conference, from 6 to 7.
6) Add an extra week to the playoffs by having the 6th and 7th seed play a play-in game to the wild card round.

The result: Regular season is 18 weeks, playoffs are 6 weeks, pre-season is two weeks. More games for TV. Two new nights of NFL football. An extra week to the most exciting part of the season: the playoffs. Players actually play fewer games instead of more, but season is longer. Win win win!

PTR

[Jan Reimers]

When I first started watching, there was a 12 game schedule, then it went to 14, and eventually to 16. I would prefer 18 real games and the elimination of 2 of the meaningless preseason games.

Season ticket holders, who have to buy the preseason games at full price, should be very happy.

[SABURZFAN]

will this nullify NFL contracts once they go to 18 games? i'm not sure if the NFL Players Union can do that. anybody???

[Night Train]

Like Jan said, they're used to be 12 games, then 14, then 16. Look at all the injuries now.

Cut out 2 pre-season games but leave it at 16.

[don137]

I am sure it is very tough on the players to do 18 games. One the surface it sounds great and I would love to see more games but I wonder if the quality of the play would be affected due to injuries and players not getting up mentally for every game. Players already are whining about the playing 18 games. If you recall when the NHL had a strike shorten season the play was great every night. With a long season like the NHL you see players take nights off. I could see that with the NFL expanding the season.

I am all for removing 2 preseason games. Do scrimagges/practices with other teams like the Bills use to do with the Cleveland Browns. Its a good way to evaluate players.

I know its more about revenue so I doubt they would keep 16 games and eliminate 2 preseason games with more scrimagges which is my choice based on quality of play but if given the option of 16 games and 4 preseason games or 18 games and 2 preseason games I would choose 18 games.

[casdhf]

I agree with Don. The Super Bowl would be played with all 3rd stringers.

[psubills62]

That won't help the CBA negotiations, especially if the owners are looking to do things like split the money more evenly and institute a rookie pay scale.

[psubills62]

I'm a little surprised to hear people want to remove 2 preseason games. Do you honestly think our team is ready to open the season on Saturday/Sunday? Because that's what it would be if we only had 2 preseason games. It's nice to be able to see what our team truly has in terms of starters and reserves. With only 2 preseason games, how easy is it to judge what we have?

A longer preseason also allows some players more time to recover from injury.

Would I mind watching more football? No. But in the end I think things work just fine as is. And being a Bills fan, I think it's safe to say that we need all the preparation in the preseason that we can get.

[psubills62]

will this nullify NFL contracts once they go to 18 games? i'm not sure if the NFL Players Union can do that. anybody???

That's probably something they'll have to work out. They may just decide to give the players 2 extra game checks based on their current per-game salary.

But at the same time, it reduces the owners' leverage on other topics in the CBA, such as rookie pay scale.

[northernbillfan]

Merged threads

[northernbillfan]

I don't want to see the Super Bowl played in mid February, say around Valentines day.

This will be harder on the cold weather teams than it would be for the southern teams.

[ddaryl]

I think its a bad idea. More injuries to star players, and less time for bottom dwelling teams to get their **** together.

All in the name of bigger profits for a bunch of owners who will see major changes in the values of their teams in the near future IMO.

[ddaryl]

will this nullify NFL contracts once they go to 18 games? i'm not sure if the NFL Players Union can do that. anybody???

we know there won;t be a mass nullification.. that would be brutal on the league

[trapezeus]

i don't know this for a fact, but i'd venture to guess it's cheaper to pay the players to play 2 more regular season games, than to add 2 moreplayoff teams payroll wise.

i thought players make a bonus for winning playoff games and get a nominal figure when they lose in those games. therefore, the owners owe more instead of just telling the players that there are 2 more games on their current contract.

and Jan nailed it. as season ticket holders, we already pay full price for preseason games. and those games are meaningless. i'd rather have games that count at $73 a seat than games that don't count at the same cost.

[DraftBoy]

I hate the idea of eliminating two preseason games personally. Having only two games, and a scrimmage to judge whether or not a player should make your squad imo is not enough time.

[Joe Fo Sho]

I'm a little surprised to hear people want to remove 2 preseason games. Do you honestly think our team is ready to open the season on Saturday/Sunday? Because that's what it would be if we only had 2 preseason games. It's nice to be able to see what our team truly has in terms of starters and reserves. With only 2 preseason games, how easy is it to judge what we have?

A longer preseason also allows some players more time to recover from injury.

Would I mind watching more football? No. But in the end I think things work just fine as is. And being a Bills fan, I think it's safe to say that we need all the preparation in the preseason that we can get.

Do you honestly think they'll be ready after 4 games??

[trapezeus]

with the OTA's, the training camp and 2 games, i think you have an idea if a guy is good enough. there are plenty of tapes, plent of time in camp and OTA's for the guys who are most likely the bubble players anyways.

one issue becomes, the knicks and bruises we have that return people on week 1 would come in week 3. that would suck for us a bit.

but like Joe Fo Sho said, 2 more weeks isn't going to refine your overall talent from non playoff team to playoff team.

[ddaryl]

Do you honestly think they'll be ready after 4 games??

that is not the point.. Bad teams need that time to evaluate the roster better, ensure they are keeping the right personel, and learning the playbook while forging continuity.

4 preseason games should not be forcefed on the season ticket holders, but teams, especially the teams at the bottom need those games.

Some player need those extra games to just to get their groove going

[mikemac2001]

Whats wrong with the system with have now?

i love it

[Luisito23]

Whats wrong with the system with have now?

i love it


Too short, plus with 2 bye weeks it's only really 1 game? :pimped:

[justasportsfan]

this will increase the need for a QBC. Quaterback By Committee.

[Turf]

If they expand the schedule they're going to have to expand the rosters. The NFL product is so poor right now because there is no depth on most team. It's turning into scrub football. Todays teams are a shadow of what a good football team used to be.

[Ingtar33]

If they expand the schedule they're going to have to expand the rosters. The NFL product is so poor right now because there is no depth on most team. It's turning into scrub football. Todays teams are a shadow of what a good football team used to be.


bingo. they need to add 10 more spots to the rosters to make this work.

[Throne Logic]

will this nullify NFL contracts once they go to 18 games? i'm not sure if the NFL Players Union can do that. anybody???

Roger Goodell stated in the recent past that the CBA already has an agreement in it that would allow the NFL to expand up to 22 games per season.

Best link I could find for something I saw on either ESPN or NFLN (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/thehuddle/post/2010/08/roger-goodell-suggests-nfl-has-the-option-of-increasing-total-game-schedule-to-22/1)

[Billz_fan]

Personally I am against expanding the season. It's dam hard enough on these guys bodys to make it through now. By the end of these schedules you are looking at watered down football talent wise.

Not to mention more games like the Colts turned in at the end of last season to keep there 1st unit healthy. Not into paying full price for games that are played by the 2nd and 3rd stringers during the regular season.

What about all the league records ? Everything will once again be skewed by the change in games.

Call me old fashioned, this is just another way to generate more revenue and has nothing to do with improving the quality of the football played or the leauge itself. It also does not have the best interest of the players at hand. IMO.