NFL owners want an expanded 18-game regular season by 2012. Commissioner Roger Goodell calls it a way to "present the best football" to fans.
By Charles LeClaire, US Presswire
Steelers linebacker James Harrison played with a back injury during this past season and thinks that an 18-game NFL schedule is "absolutely ludicrous."
By Charles LeClaire, US Presswire
Steelers linebacker James Harrison played with a back injury during this past season and thinks that an 18-game NFL schedule is "absolutely ludicrous."
The NFL players union and its members, who have taken the hard knocks of a 16-game schedule since 1978, say replacing two preseason games with two played for keeps is not in the best interest of their health and safety.
"It would be absolutely ludicrous," Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison said before the Super Bowl. "? It's not really player safety that they're worried about. They want to do whatever makes them more money."
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On the surface, that split might look like a deal-breaker. But this is a time of collective bargaining. When multiple issues finally are sorted out, there could be a new 18-game look to the NFL calendar.
"I think it will happen. There are certainly ways the NFL can make that easier on the players ? with their concerns about the potential for increased risk of injury," says Roger Abrams, law professor at Northeastern University in Boston.
He says the incentive is there for owners when it comes to TV money: "Networks will certainly pay more for two extra games than they would for two extra preseason games."
Abrams see the issue as a bargaining chip for the union: "I think they're going to use that the way they would use any other issue, as an opportunity to hopefully get some concessions from the NFL."
Currently, with owners and players in federally mediated talks, both are following a directive not to comment publicly. But prior to the Super Bowl, both stated their positions on 18 games.
The expanded schedule was the first thing Goodell was asked about at his press conference before the Super Bowl. He said fans "don't like the quality of our preseason." Hence the idea to eliminate two of four games, described by Goodell as "low quality, non-competitive games," and play games "fans want to see."
Under the format of four preseason games and 16 regular-season games, fans have paid the same price for two preseason home games as they have for eight regular-season home games. At a December fan round table with Goodell, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said of the 18-game format: "The whole idea is that for the same pricing, you're getting nine regular season games and one preseason game."
Why not just preseason prices? "What you also want to do is you want to continue to grow the pie," said Goodell. "That's good for everybody. ? So you keep looking for ways in which you can grow the revenue, grow the pie."
At a press conference held by the NFL Players Association, executive director DeMaurice Smith said, "Any change in the season that increases the risk of injury ? is not in the interest or best interest of the players of the National Football League."
At least one owner has not embraced 18 games. That is Dan Rooney, U.S. ambassador to Ireland and chairman emeritus of the Steelers.
"It's not necessary. We've got a good system now," Rooney said before the Super Bowl. "? We don't have any problem with preseason. I'm willing to listen to anything, but I think 18 games is too many for the system that we have. The system we have is beautiful. It works out perfectly."
The system could change.
If the NFL goes to 18 games, it will have to decide whether to play extra games in the hotter, early part of the season or the colder, later part, which could require pushing back the Super Bowl.
Extra games could require bigger rosters. Goodell said safety must be a priority "under any format. He said the NFL was willing to work with the union on such matters as alterations to offseason workouts, length of training camps and how much hitting occurs in camp and regular-season drills.
Preseason games test newcomers. With two, would free agent rookies get chances to shine? Would teams be as well prepared to start the season? "I feel an obligation to make sure we are doing the best we can to present the best football," Goodell said. "And that includes how to we make the preseason as effective as possible and the regular season as effective as possible."
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