NFL made a proposal to the players association for an 18 game schedule today. The kicker is it will be a 16 game per player limit. Dumb, in my opinion. Another screw you to fans that buy tickets hoping to see a great QB only to find out he is sitting that week. Thoughts?
I am all for 18 game schedule but making players only for 16 of them is watering down the product. Pass. But most likely players union will accept the proposal.
the first quarter of the season is a sloppy mess as is, two more games without starters will just make it even worse. pass
That is ridiculous! I'm okay with an 18 game schedule, but not having your best players available for every game is really stupid and will only make it worse. I can't believe they would even consider that. So every team would have to play a backup QB for 2 games, and they think it will make the product better? It's basically like counting the last 2 preseason games as season games affecting the team record when the whole team doesn't play. Utterly asinine. I would quit watching football completely if they did that.
Imagine the NFL was dumb enough to do this. If you're a team, when do you sit your starting QB? It would suck to sit him early in the season and then watch him miss a couple additional games due to injury. But at the same time, you don't want to lose him for the last two games if those matter. Also the value of a good backup would increase.
That's probably the only way the players union would agree to 18 games. The league gets more money from 2 added games, players would get more money as the extra income would raise the cap. Win Win for the players and league,big lose for season ticket holders.
Here's a cool idea. Let teams play 18 games and only count 16 of them. You get to throw out the 2 losses you played your scrubs.
The gambling implications make it hard to believe it would happen. When would the rosters be frozen? What if a player is hurt and playing is a game time decision? Knowing the other team has already committed to benching the starting QB or pass rusher would give a team a tremendous unfair advantage. I don’t believe this will happen. If they’re going to 18 games they have to make the pre-season shorter and add a second bye, but it still will look bad when people get hurt in weeks 19 and 20.
Without significant additional compensation for the players, there's no way in hell the NFLPA will let it happen.
2 games = 12.5% of the current season. It would equate to 12.5 % increase in ticket sales , TV and streaming revenue. That would raise the salary cap 12.5% for the players who still only play 16 games.
Pretty sure all teams already charge for preseason tickets and that they would be taking away two preseason games if they did this so don't think there would be that much ticket sale increase. Might get a few extra single game tickets sold but doubt it would equate to anywhere near 12.5% I couldn't see the NFLPA agreeing to this because the owners would see most of the increased revenue, I don't think the salary cap would increase as much as you think. And the increase would likely go to mostly star players rather than role players or your middle tier guys, another reason the union nixes it. But the main reason I don't think it happens is because of the gambling implications as @statjeff22 mentioned. How does Vegas set a line when then don't know the starting QB? It may not be a big change if you don't know if it's Allen or Barkley, but when you get to a team like the Jags if you don't know if it will be Foles or Tanner Lee what do you do as an oddsmaker?
They almost have the perfect formula, and will ruin it with Greed filled bullshit....... the average idiot will be like "YAAAY more football", but to those who understand what they're actually watching will see a watered down crappy product. The one good move was making week 17 divisional games to help counteract the teams locked into playoff seeding just mailing it in. This instantly negates this. That's not even touching their whole farce about "Player safety".... Suck it Rog....
Just wait until a premier starting QB gets injured because a team was forced to play some backup oline guys that game.
I don't think it happens either due to the gaming implications but if it were to happen, revenue would increase. There are thousands of individual tickets sold per game and all those empty seats and $10 dollar seats would be sold at full price. Season tickets holders would only be getting screwed for 2 games , but that's the drawback to season tickets. The majority of the revenue would come from TV and media which the players get 55% of. Of course the majority of the salary cap increase would go to the "star" players. That's the nature of sports, any entertainment industry. Best players are paid the most in every sport, no exceptions. Look at NBA salaries and compare the disparity to their rookies. First pick gets $4.1 million. That's not changing,and no players association would attempt to change it. Those Star players are what drive league revenue.
I would think they would just pick a game and mail it in playing every sub. It would be a shit show for sure. I don't see any team putting in the starting QB with a back-up O line, that would be too Jetty.
What would really suck is when people travel for a game only to find out the teams decided to use that game as their rest game like what happens in the NBA. You pay full price and get a watered down product.