NFL Insider: Would an 18-Game Schedule Be a Burden?

The NFL has been mulling over an 18-game schedule for most of the season and depending on who you listen to or what you read, you may see that it’s a sure thing or it’s something that isn’t even being considered.  It seems like a popular idea among the owners and it would bring more money into their pockets. 

The players seem to be split on the idea.  Some like it for the fact that they will get more money while others feel that they will end up with a  greater chance of getting hurt in the extra two games.

If the NFL institutes an 18-game schedule then it would most likely take out two pre season games leaving just two for teams to prepare for the upcoming NFL season.  If you talk with NFL players about the four game preseason slate, you would find out that they dislike it because it’s two games that really don’t mean anything and thus two games that afford them an additional opportunity to get hurt. 

Owners like it because they can charge regular price for those two extra games and fill the stands with two more regular season games (it gets a little hard to fill the stands with preseason games).

The revenue opportunities are nice for everyone but player safety, as previously mentioned, has to be taken into account as well.  Playing two more games gives the teams' starters two more games to get injured (especially right before the post-season) and players are pretty wary of injuries right before the post season. 

The possibility of getting injured in one of the final two added games (and thus affecting what might happen in the playoffs) would be much greater with two more games added to the end of the regular season schedule.

It will be interesting to see what they decide to do with this 18 game idea as both the owners and the players head to the bargaining table to try to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement. 

Would this be something that they could get figured out as part of the agreement or would it be something that would hold back negotiations?

It’s a win-win situation for some and a lose-lose situation for others.  The fans would get two extra games a season.  You can bet that NFL would love to have two more regular season games to watch both in person and on television. 

The television networks would like it as well because they would get to air two games that mattered over two games that don’t really add up to much in terms of ratings.  So it would definitely benefit the television networks.

For the player that is hurt in these two new games, and his team, it is definitely a lose-lose situation.  Teams tiptoe through the season sometimes (especially the end of it when it comes close to playoff time) hoping to avoid injuries and adding two more games would definitely put that in jeopardy.

So what’s the best thing to do?  Should they add another two games to the end of the NFL schedule and give fans extra games?

Should we give the owners two full games of revenue and give the players two more regular game checks along with the possibility to suffer an injury?  We will soon find out as the NFL and the Players Union meet to iron out a new CBA.

Will this be part of the new agreement?  Is it something that both sides will agree upon?

We will soon find out.