How an Expanded 18-Game NFL Season Will Work

I like the farm league idea, but not the expanded schedule.

Too many teams have starters out at the end of the season as it is. More games means more injuries, which means more playoff games being decided by 3rd-string scrubs.

You ask who’s not in favor of more NFL games? That’s what they said at one time about the NHL, NBA, and MLB, all of which have given in to the temptation to over-expand and dilute their product to the point where nobody cares about it anymore. Quick, tell me what Toronto’s NBA team is called. Are the Grizzlies still in Memphis? How long has Charlotte had a team, and who’s their star player? You’re not sure, are you? Neither am I. When you dilute the product, then every part of that product (teams, players, games) becomes less important and therefore less interesting.

I’m not saying that the NFL’s there yet, but I don’t want it to even move in that direction. As it stands, I care about pretty much every game for every team. Let’s keep it that way.

Like Dr. Z used to say: “Football’s a nice game. Leave it alone.”

I sure haven’t seen it. I’ve seen fans complaining about having to purchase over-priced pre-season tickets with their season tickets, but not about having the pre-season games all together.

18 game seasons would mess with a lot of records and put the players at more injury risk. I heard a good idea where they expand the playoffs instead and eliminate the bye.

I like it. Sure there are some downsides (injury risks, records, etc) but ultimately as a fan, more meaningful football games is always a good thing in my book! :-) I don’t buy the excuse that teams will have things wrapped up sooner though cause the argument works both ways…it also gives teams more time to catch up and more games to catch up for teams that are behind. Heck we might have seen the Titans make the playoffs last year if they had two more games. The Packers might have caught up to the Vikings. I get the argument against it and I don’t blame people for being against it, but I love the idea and I hope it happens.

What about when its Week 15 of an 18-game schedule & a certain team is 13-2 with its division in clear wraps. Normally in the season structure as we now know, the starters would likely rest during the final game or two. Are teams going to start resting their players during the last 3 games of an 18 game schedule because they either have homefield or their division wrapped? A longer season also means a larger margin between the good and great teams in the standings which leads to more meaningless games at the end of the season which can essentially be considered what? … Preseason games.

Why do you think the NFL is more popular than the MLB now days? It’s the way it’s set up, not so much the game itself. Baseball season drags, it gets boring, it gets old. If you lose, it doesn’t matter. “Just get em’ next time.” If you lose in football, it’s a big deal. Every game means more. Just by expanding the season by 2 games alone, you lose the importance of each game. Also, if you do this and a team has their division locked up by week 10 or so, that’s a lot of games of them playing backups. It will only make things worse. Fans have already been complaining about all the rule changes, so why would the NFL want to blow that out of proportion? Yeah, yeah, yeah, i know….money. Well, they should consider the loss of interest too. As for the Farm Club, then you lose interest in the NFL Draft. College Football is the Farm Club! Keep it the way it is now. We need 4 Preseason Games to properly evaluate our talent. You can’t get a lot out of 2 Preseason Games.