NFL Lockout 2011: 4 Reasons Why an 8-Game Season Will Work

Despite progress in the NFL labor negotiations, reports this week indicate the league is making contingency plans for an eight-game schedule. 

The potential of an eight-game schedule has not been well received, and sports commentators are universally opposed, insisting it wouldn't work. Unfortunately, most of them are speaking from their hearts, not their heads. 

Sure, nobody wants an eight-game schedule instead of the traditional 16-game schedule—but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work. 

Here are four reasons an eight-game schedule would actually work.

Fans Will Still Watch

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HOUSTON - JANUARY 02: Head coach Jack Del Rio of the Jacksonville Jaguars looks on from the sidelines during first half action against the Houston Texans at Reliant Stadium on January 2, 2011 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)

Say what you will; should the lockout persist until midseason next year, you will be clamoring for anything they can scrape together because the NFL is king.

Want Proof? Consider one of the worst Monday Night Football games of 2010—in late October, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans (final score 30-3, featuring two small-market teams who didn’t make the playoffs) went head-to head with Game 3 of the ALCS between the Yankees (top TV market) and the Rangers (fifth-rated market), and won handily. 

The simple fact is that the NFL is going to retain the vast majority of their audience, no matter when the season starts.

There's Still Money to Be Made

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DETROIT - FEBRUARY 05: Super Bowl MVP and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady performs the coin toss before the start of Super Bowl XL between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field on February 5, 2006 in Detroit, Michigan. (P

If the NFL was all about the “fans,” the lockout wouldn’t be the stark reality we are facing today.  Obviously both owners and players are going to be out an awful lot of money by midseason—and with very few exceptions, these guys are going have an incentive to compromise this fall. 

The only thing more costly than losing eight games in a season is losing an entire season. If a deal isn’t in place by the start of the season, only a nuclear holocaust will stop it by midseason. 

We Know What We're Getting by Week 9

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ARLINGTON, TX - FEBRUARY 06: Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers drops back against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter of Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, 2011 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Ima

Look at the ESPN power rankings for the last four years—there’s not a single Super Bowl champion who wasn’t in the playoff picture by week eight. 

Of all those teams, the worst position of the Super Bowl champion at week nine was the Green Bay Packers this past November—who were actually in a better position in week nine than they were in week 17.

The Stakes Are Higher

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METAIRIE, LA - JULY 30: Reggie Bush #25 of the New Orleans Saints during the first day of Training Camp on July 30, 2010 in Metairie, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Every season there are elite teams who, inexplicably, lose to bottom-feeders at midseason.  Both New England and New Orleans were blown out by Cleveland in successive weeks last year—would that happen in an eight-game season? 

Absolutely not. 

The elite teams in the NFL have a tendency to get complacent and most of them lose a shocker each season, probably because they have plenty of time to right the ship following a loss. In an eight-game season, there is absolutely no margin for error, because even two early losses could knock a team out of playoff contention.

An eight-game schedule means that fans are getting playoff football week-to-week.