Goodell: Looking to have an 18-game regular season.

[BillsVet]

It's not surprising Goodell and the owners want this.  It's amazing to watch how, since Gene Upshaw died, the NFLPA and commissioner/owners are basically on the same team now.  There's no labor strife because they're united by making more money.    

 

No one talks about how an 18-game schedule shortens careers or that the quality of the product will decrease.  We saw a glimpse of that this season when, with pre-season reduced to a few big scrimmages, the quality of play declined markedly at the beginning because starters don't get pre-season PT.  

 

I'm sure players even with another bye thrown in also aren't keen on the international games to Europe and South America.  Which makes one wonder whether there'll be some division within the NFLPA about just acquiescing to this.  Wouldn't be the first union where leadership and rank and file aren't agreeing lately. 

[Big Turk]

Just now, BillsVet said:

It's not surprising Goodell and the owners want this.  It's amazing to watch how, since Gene Upshaw died, the NFLPA and commissioner/owners are basically on the same team now.  There's no labor strife because they're united by making more money.    

 

No one talks about how an 18-game schedule shortens careers or that the quality of the product will decrease.  We saw a glimpse of that this season when, with pre-season reduced to a few big scrimmages, the quality of play declined markedly at the beginning because starters don't get pre-season PT.  

 

I'm sure players even with another bye thrown in also aren't keen on the international games to Europe and South America.  Which makes one wonder whether there'll be some division within the NFLPA about just acquiescing to this.  Wouldn't be the first union where leadership and rank and file aren't agreeing lately. 

 

The players want more safety until the NFL comes to them and says "But you can make 300 million more dollars a year by growing the game internationally and playing more games."  Then they essentially say "Where do I sign up for it?"

[ToGoGo]

He's so tone deaf. They have a plan to make more money and they are just sticking to it, regardless of what their customers think.

 

"Refs are better than ever!"
"More games!"

"More international games!"

 

They learned they can blindly stick to a script and act aloof and the questions will go away. 

[Buffalo03]

1 minute ago, Big Turk said:

 

The players want more safety until the NFL comes to them and says "But you can make 300 million more dollars a year by growing the game internationally and playing more games."  Then they essentially say "Where do I sign up for it?"

What annoys me is they lowered OT during the regular season to 10:00 because of "player safety" but then they keep doing this stuff. Like 10:00 OT is beyond dumb. Just bring back the 15:00 OT 

[Big Turk]

5 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

What annoys me is they lowered OT during the regular season to 10:00 because of "player safety" but then they keep doing this stuff. Like 10:00 OT is beyond dumb. Just bring back the 15:00 OT 

 

The players want safety but only if it doesn't come at the expense of them making more money...then they don't care about safety anymore.

[Chugga]

I HATE this.  I don’t want the Super Bowl to be decided by the team that limps in with the most starters still playing.  When do they propose that playoff games should be a best of 3?  Can you imagine the ratings of game 3 of Bills vs Chiefs with the series tied at 1-1.

 

Football is such a special sport.  Every game holds so much weight.  It isn’t baseball where you can go on a 20 game losing streak and you’ve still got 140+ games to make up the difference.  It’s not like basketball where you can sit your stars with load management because seeding doesn’t really mean anything.

 

Every game, every down, everything matters.

 

What they are discussing between Thursday games, more international travel, and more games spits directly in the face of their player safety initiative.

[In Summary]

13 minutes ago, Chugga said:

I don’t want the Super Bowl to be decided by the team that limps in with the most starters still playing.

This. Long seasons and shorter careers. Expect more rules that take the impact out of this impact sport.

[JP51]

Strictly from an OCD standpoint an odd number of games seems weird to me... that being said... 18 games seems like a lot... I think the NFLPA would definitely want to  have to cut down to two or one Pre season game... definitely have to add another bye week... and likely expand the 53 to 57 just from sheer attrition... but the cap would go up based on revenue increase from the new games. could however in some small way benefit us if the season went later... more cold weather games...  

[foreboding]

3 hours ago, Brianmoorman4jesus said:

Give me 18 games 2 bye per team. Can’t be enough nfl the season is way too short.

Injuries man. It's already a back breaking long season for these guys.

[stevewin]

3 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

The NFL could have 32 games and it wouldn’t be enough. Sports betting is really what makes the NFL indestructible. It’s so easy to bet on, also fantasy football is growing.

 

Im not a fan of the whole international thing but they must feel there’s untapped potential. I don’t know. Eventually there will be NFL teams in other countries. Probably a whole division of international teams. 

I'd be perfectly fine to have an international division - like old nfl Europe but just pretend they are actually in the NFL.  Let them schlep all over the world instead of the American teams.  And give them a single playoff spot so they can come over to the US and get destroyed annually

[Ethan in Cleveland]

18 games.  1 preseason games sounds perfect! 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

8 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

18 games.  1 preseason games sounds perfect! 

Zero. 

[Don Otreply]

4 hours ago, Big Turk said:

Pretty much been a foregone conclusion, it's just a matter of how long before it happens.

This ^^^

[Sojourner]

[dma0034]

It will be 2 preseason, 18 games with 2 byes.

 

They'll start it the weekend before Labor Day to steal that holiday. They'll have 2/3 games on Labor Day along with the Thursday and possibly Friday games. The extra bye then allows them to get what they've always wanted: The Superbowl the night before President's Day.

[thronethinker]

They need to add a 8 th seed and a second bye for the 2 seed again. 

[jayg]

2 hours ago, Logic said:

 

 

 

[dollars 2 donuts]

 

Give me an old school CFL/USFL 14-4 or 15-3 record!

 

I remember when the Boston Breakers and Denver Gold finished 11-7 and 10-8...I have no idea why I remember that.

 

 

EDIT:

 

I also remember when the Ottawa Roughriders (RIP) made it to the Grey Cup with two playoff victories after finishing the season 5-11.

 

They lost to Warren moon and the Edmonton Eskimos, but I loved that Roughriders team and all that moxie.

 

 

EIDT 2:

 

Some info on that team...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/69th_Grey_Cup

 

 

"The 69th Grey Cup was played on November 22, 1981, at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec in front of 52,487 fans. The 1981 Grey Cup game is considered to be one of the ten best Grey Cup games of all time.[1] CFL football fans saw an unexpectedly exciting game, as the 22.5 point underdog Ottawa Rough Riders, sporting a woeful record of 5–11 (the worst record in league history by any Grey Cup finalist team), came within three seconds of beating the Edmonton Eskimos, who had won the championship the last three straight years. The Eskimos, with a 14–1–1 record, were almost the victims of what would have been the biggest upset in the history of the Grey Cup. With the win, the Eskimos became the first team in league history to win the Grey Cup four consecutive times."

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2 by dollars 2 donuts

[machine gun kelly]

4 hours ago, Gregg said:

Also wants to have 16 international games within 5 years.

 

Dov Kleiman on X: "𝗧𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗜𝗡𝗚: Roger Goodell plans to extend the NFL season to 18 Games. He also wants to increase the international game total to 16 a season. “We hope to be 16 within five years,” referring to international games. “We could be doing more regular season than preseason, so https://t.co/y1xyY77jhE" / X

It’s an inevitability like Thanos, but won’t happen until the next CBA.  It’s so widely accepted the NFLPA will probably want 1% more of the revenue, and cut the preseason to 2 games at most, maybe 1, with then 18 regular season games.  I can see  the international games going to more Two a Sunday or one on Saturdays.  My reasoning is we don’t do the Saturday games now until the break with the NCAA their end of season and the bowl games.  
 

There’s no conflict with the NFL in international games during the season if in Europe or S. America.  The NFL and PA won’t want international games at the beginning or end of the season.  Basically with 16 international games, every team will get one Int. Game, amd Goodell can break into The UK, Spain, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, and even Toronto.  Hopefully, if we have to do one international game, my friends still in Buffalo would prefer to drive an hour to Toronto, amd can even be a divisional game with NE, or the Jests.  Who knows if the rumors were true on Bezos (yeah the Amazon bajillionaire) the Jets would have the resources to hire top notch high priced GM and HC.  They already have some top talent and a high draft pick for a QB.

 

As always, I have no inside information, just logical assumptions.

 

[njbuff]

The Bills season was practically ruined by one of those dumb international games last season.

 

Also, every team is dealing with injuries galore. How is that going to improve by going to an 18 game regular season?

Edited December 2 by njbuff