The talk has been there over the past couple of years to extend the NFL’s regular season to 17 or possibly even 18 games. The thought behind the extension is that the extra games would bring more advertising money,
and obviously more revenue for the teams in ticket sales, jersey sales, and other miscellaneous items bought by fans during a day at the stadium.
The extra games would also probably mean an international game for nearly all 32 teams, whether that be in Canada, Mexico, or across the pond to the U.K. to broaden the NFL’s fan base.
This new extended schedule would also eliminate one or two preseason games based on how many games were added.
Let's not forget that the starters rarely play in the fourth preseason game anyway.
But wait a minute, I thought the main focus was player safety?
How is it that the main focus could be on player safety, while at the same time asking the players to play between four and eight more quarters of this dangerous sport?
The Answer: Hypocrisy, pure and simple.
I’m on board, as I think everyone is, for making the game safer for the players as long as the integrity of the game is not called into question because of it.
However, it would appear as though the true reasoning behind these new rules comes to the forefront when proposals like this are made, and that’s simply protecting an investment.
The NFL is in favor of keeping the players safe, but only if it doesn’t interfere with the unbelievable coin that these players rake in for them on a year-to-year basis.
This is not to say that protecting their investments doesn’t make sense, that would be crazy. Protecting your money is just good business.
But for as much as everyone says the NFL is a business, that should come second to the actual sport of football. The NFL is not the end-all for what is and what is not football.
Perhaps the NFL has become too big. They are in need of some sort of competition so they can’t simply make rules to increase their revenue by totally ignoring what is in the best interest of the players as human beings, and not just as walking Coinstars.
It’s difficult not to question the motives of the NFL brass when decisions like this are being made, and I’m not the only one who’s beginning to see this.
Said Peter King to NFL Network in regards to extending the schedule, “I think it’s a barreling locomotive, it’s a train wreck. (It’s) a terrible idea.”
So just to set the record straight, this is in no way rescinding my previous article in which I said the rules are sound and make sense, because they are and do.
But while the NFL is in fact making the game safer for its players, they’re doing it for the wrong reasons. They’re doing what’s in the best interest of the juggernaut that is the NFL, the players just happen to benefit a little along the way.
I guess the old adage is true, the ends justify the means.
