Expanding To 18

One of the issues that was being discussed in the talks between the NFL and the NFL Players Association was expanding the schedule to eighteen games. Doing so would bring in more revenue via television and ticket sales to the teams, but is this really a good thing? No.

The argument the owners have made is that there are already twenty games being played per team every year, counting the four games played in pre-season. In order to play the eighteen, the owners are suggesting to cut two pre-season games to keep the total of twenty games played before playoffs. Sounds okay right? Wrong.

The counter arguments by the players makes a lot more sense to me. First off, in the first four games of the pre-season, players don't play as much as they do during the regular season. This includes bench players. With so many players on the squad trying to make the final roster, players don't usually play more than a quarter to two quarters at most. Playing in two more regular season games means more time on the field to all the players that make the opening day roster.

Well it's only eighteen games right? MLB plays 162 and they don't complain. Well MLB is different that NFL. MLB injuries come from long term circumstances and over use or exertion. Most of the injuries in the NFL are impact based that happen instantly. A lineman for example is subjected to the same force as a car crash when they bash into other linemen. Adding two more games doesn't just mean more of a chance of injuries, but it also means the stronger possibilities of not being able to finish the season or even shorter careers.

Another negative factor is players such as linemen have had shorter life spans that doctors believe are related to football. Linemen are dying too often in their late forties and early fifties. With an extended schedule, who knows if this could get even worse.

I can also imagine painkiller addictions could go up as well. With players having injuries, aches, and pains that last well after their careers are over, an expanded season could worsen injuries and batter the bodies even more of the players, resulting in more painkillers being taken.

Last, but not least, I believe that from a statistics category, records will fall and it would be disasterous. More running backs will be getting closer to two thousand yards rushing per season, one thousand yards will mean less and less, wide receivers getting one hundred catches will be good still, but not great, etc. With twenty-two percent more games a season that during the time of legends like Jim Brown, records back then can't be compared to now.

The big controversey when baseball expanded their season was that the season went from one hundred fifty-four games to one hundred sixty-two. A five percent increase in games in the last one hundred years.

Expanding to eighteen games would be disasterous on many levels for the NFL. This is one of the reasons I side with the players during the current arguments with the owners.