The 18-Game Season

[Ramius]

If they expand the season (which would be stupid beyond belief) the NFL would need to implement a DL system like baseball. Season ending IR sucks, especially if a player could come back. They can still have season ending IR, but they should also adopt a 4 game DL and an 8 game DL, so if a guy is hurt for a month or 2, you can bring up a warm body, but aren't penalized by forcing him to sit out a year.

[Hplarrm]

I think an 18 game schedule is inevitable. While the owners are pushing it, I think it is the players themselves that will make it happen. The players want more money and the owners aren't going to give it to them without a greater revenue stream. When it gets down to it, the players will opt for more money. I think ultimately, it will hurt the game and the NFL popularity especially if they don't have a season to reach this end.

 

Not so fast actually. My sense is that the 18 game proposal is best evaluated not simply on its merits as to whether the game is improved or diminished, but as you say what is the bottomline in terms of the cash delivered to either the players or the owners.

 

This means two things to me in terms of first cut evaluation of the proposal:

 

1. It depends totally on how the proceeds are split between the owners and the players as to whether one the NFLPA or the NFL would support a proposal,

 

A deal which adds two games of regular season revenue with simply adds to the gross revenue of the NFL and then allows each team to distribute this over time as the choose withing the constraints of the current CBA is a totally different thing for the NFLPA than a deal which specifically dictates this money be paid either upfront on a pergame basis to current players.

 

Whether the NFLPA would agree to such a general game expansion depends mostly on the details of the payout to the team owners' partners the NFLPA.

 

2. The main fiscal issue motivating the owners and the players right now is NOT schedule length but negotiations on CBA. The correct motivation to make bucks actually means the key use of this proposal is to influence CBA negotiation rather than scope out a plan for future expansion,

[truth on hold]

seriously what would having 2 more games this season prove? one look at the standings and it's clear the deserving teams are going to playoffs (except NFC west winner, but that's a divisional thing), and the losers are going home.