Brilliant! 18 game season with 16 game per player limit

[ThePro]

I bet the NFL sure regrets going from 14 to 16 games in 1979. Pretty much doomed the league to failure.

Good point

[auroraave]

in 1979 the landscape was entirely different. There were no '24 hour' news stations and ESPN was literally just starting. There was minimal coverage. Today is is 24/7 coverage. There were games on Sunday on NBC/CBS and Monday night football on ABC. Now there are games on Sunday, Sunday Night, Monday Night and Thursday nights, in London and in Mexico City - with 24-hour coverage, with games on on ESPN/ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, The NFL Network and even Amazon. The market is beyond saturated.

Economically the league was growing, it wasn't anywhere near the behemoth it is today - completely driven by TV revenue (oh, and now we're adding 'personal seat licenses' as a way to extract more of your money). The players today are much, much, bigger, stronger and faster. The punishment today is more severe, the collisions exponentially more dangerous. Concussions are now a thing. We know more today.

All of this is before we even get into how it completely changes the coaching and strategy for en entire season. How are people going to feel when your team is on a playoff run, gunning for a number one seed, or even just a wildcard birth, and your star QB is sitting on the sidelines because of a ridiculous rule, and the back up throws a pick six and your season is now over? How's that gonna taste? Or your star linebacker is on the sidelines while the defense is getting gouged - because of an absolutely asinine money grab rule? Those are seismic changes. The Seahawks are all about competition, and you're forcing them to field a less competitive team - so the NFL can cover it's ass and charge you more money for regular season tickets than preseason tickets.

No one can honestly say this is a good thing - it is nothing more than 100% greed, period. And while that's their right to chase that $$$, it is 100% in line with the NFL's failure to consider the fan. The NFL is nothing more than a consumable commodity, and as the game does everything to alienate the fans by pricing them out of the game, manufacturing idiotic rule changes, always reacting vs ever being pro-active (except when it comes to finding new revenue streams), watching entire fanbases (aka CONSUMERS) get screwed over by poor/inept officiating, all while forcing them so look at those utterly ridiculous Thursday Night uniform abominations. There is always a tipping point, I believe the NFL has reached there's. Changes should be natural and organic, not these absurd and blatant money grabs. Hey, now games are gonna be five hours long so we can revue every play, which the owners love because they can show more commercials! For the fan - IT SUCKS. Five hours to watch 80 plays.

The NFL has peaked, they aren't the up and coming league anymore. The players are different, economic models are different, saturation is a real thing, and kids are now playing soccer instead of football.

Ultimately, this is about the upcoming CBA negotiations and the owners looking for leverage. This moronic idea will likely never be implemented. Oh, that's another difference - these public negotiations between the league and the NFLPA.

But yeah, other than those things, it's exactly the same as 1979.

[D-train]

Owners: Hey we would like to increase the season to 18 games
NFLPA: No way!
Owners: But we will increase the salary cap an additional 12.5% (2/16) and nobody will have to play more than 16 games AND we will cut 2 preseason games
NFLPA: Where do we sign?

[Oso Dorado]

I thought that Mark Murphy's (Packer's Pres) idea of adding one game, but having every team play either overseas or at a neutral site once a season was a better idea. Compensation to NFLPA would be one less preseason game, and one of those, the vets didn't need to play.
Expands the seasons, no more games overall, and gives football a footprint both abroad and in cities or states without NFL teams

[maoling]

I thought that Mark Murphy's (Packer's Pres) idea of adding one game, but having every team play either overseas or at a neutral site once a season was a better idea. Compensation to NFLPA would be one less preseason game, and one of those, the vets didn't need to play.
Expands the seasons, no more games overall, and gives football a footprint both abroad and in cities or states without NFL teams

Me likey this idea.

Dumbass Coug Logic: Plus instead of an even number of regular-season games, with an odd number of 17 games, teams won't finish the season tied and it will eliminate the need for tiebreakers to see who goes to the playoffs.

No?

[D-train]

http://sportspressnw.com/2243631/2019/t ... game-slate

Looks like they would make exceptions for QBs, Kickers and Punters. I just can't fathom out turning two fake games into two real games is a bad thing. They are still playing 20 total games and players will still play a max of 16 real games each. Make the teams set their rosters by Wednesday to give fans plenty of time to decide whether they still want to go given the missing players.

[57reasons]

I would think some DL and LBs would probably like that QB exception, meaning they have to play a longer schedule, sort of evening things up a bit given how many defenders resent the separate protection rules for QBs that don't apply to other positions.

[D-train]

Ok Calkins really is an idiot.

1st he is totally unaware that there would be exceptions for QBs, punters and kickers:

First, a backup quarterback’s value may quadruple based on the two games he’d have to play. The NFL has more parity than any major American professional sport, and postseason berths often come down to the final game of the season. Would general managers neglect other needs and shell out big bucks for one of the game’s better backups? Do you pass up a cornerback in the second round to get a QB who can get you an extra win?

Then he suggests that the 0-16 Browns could have won 9-10 games and made the playoffs with this system.

Imagine if this 18-game/16-game format were in play two years ago. The 0-16 Browns might have sneaked into the playoffs just by beating on scrubs all season.

How does a guy get paid to write about sports and be this clueless?

[D-train]

btw only 7 of the top 32 RBs last season played all 16 games and would have had to sit the 17th game.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/ ... ushing.htm

This notion that we would be watching games all season with 50% backups is an absurd narrative.

[XpertDBA]

Still.....

The dumbest idea I've ever heard. Why not just make the season 32 games, and then each player only has to play 50% of the season. More money and keep everyone fresh !

SMH....Who thinks up this sheet?