USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

The NFL needs more money?

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Worried about the XFL a bit are we, Roger?

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

They are not competitors. More of a minor league without any formal arrangement.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

That is the goal of any successful business. Growth.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

It's even the goal of all failing and failed businesses. :):chug:

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

This is true.It's the successful ones that accomplish the goal.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

CBA should easily say no to this.
16 is a nice even number.
4 preseason games for teams to warm up to. Trade players and unfortunately cut players too.
16 games takes you all the way into Playoffs in January. SB week in last of January first weekend in Feb like this year.
Basketball season already started.
It overlaps at the end of season with baseball.
Football starts out big without sharing other sports. That is NFL dominates August and on.
16 games plus the bye week extends the schedule.
CBA should say easy no yo more than 16 games b cause, really, what you want to do? Kill these guys, the players.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

I would love to see 17 games. They would reduce the number of pre-season games to three (one home, one away, one neutral site). Regular season would be six games in division, four games another division within conference, four games division within other conference, and two games with the equivalent divisional finisher remaining your own conference, all just like currently set up. The final game could be against an equivalent divisional finisher in the other conference on a rotational basis. This game will be played at a neutral site such as Mexico, Canada, London, Germany, or other non-NFL U.S. cities. This way the NFL still get those non-traditional game sites without a home team having to give up a home game as happens today. Every team will get eight home, eight away, and one neutral field game.

They can even start one week earlier and add a second bye week giving the league 19 weeks of regular season play instead of the current 17. This would increase revenue and, in turn, increase the amount of money mandated to be paid to players. The players would also get more in season rest and recovery time with the extra bye week. It is a win/win for every side.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

If the owners are able to strong-arm the NFLPA and get the 17 games, we have to at least be able to get expanded rosters. All the safety and concussion concerns plus only having a 53-man roster is too limiting and reduces the quality of the product. Too many cases where we have seen rashes of injuries and teams literally try to finish the game with not enough healthy CB's or WR's or other position and you're left watching an inferior product. Bump rosters up to 60 total and 53 active, and certainly reduce to 3 preseason games.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

16 games are plenty much already. I think increasing the number is a bad idea. Rosters should be expanded thou, that part I like.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Plenty enough for who?

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Anyone else catch the "NFL Cares About Player Safety" commercial?

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

If part of the trade off is adding 2nd bye week, then I'd be a hard no.

If they add 2-3 players to both the actual roster and the active, I'd be all for it.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

I think so also. 16 games(I'm lucky to get to see 1/2 of them the way I work and some of the areas I'm working) the way it's changed has less appeal than it has, adding more games takes the fun out of it and can just about garantee expansion teams and oversees teams. I'll take good ole American football over the greedy world wide football any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Who wants to watch the Mexico City Diabloes or the England Bloaks, not me.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

I don't now about that Guido. Your scenario for the schedule seems plausible but difficult. This means that we would all travel out of the country at least once. That would make the season feel longer to the players. I'm happy with 16 quality games...not counting the officiating.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

There wouldn't have to be any more international games than there are now. The balance of the neutral field games could be played in the U.S. In fact, Canadian cities and Mexico City are closer to some franchises than U.S. cities. I can see Houston and Dallas in Mexico City, for example.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

That's the same argument that was being made when the season went from twelve games to fourteen. And, once again, the same arguments when it went from fourteen to sixteen.

And the NFL is very much against any more expansion. The moving of franchises, sure, but the 32 team formula is ideal with either a 16 or 17 game schedule.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Why would you be so opposed to a second bye week. It would double the opportunity for teams to get players healthy. They could be spaced around the first and second third points of the season giving each team an early and late season bye.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Great points Guido. We would need to relax the NFL medicinal marijuana rules to get something back for the players. It's ridiculous that it's shown to be beneficial and besides the government doesn't care anymore. If anything they like the tax revenue. Anyway, back on topic, give me sixteen games. Most players want that.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

I can also see having one of those neutral field games a week starting in week two and ending in week 17. Cities could bid for the chance of hosting them and a big deal could be made out of them. That would leave weeks one, 18 and 19 for the inter-divisional games. Oh, and I have heard that players would be open to 17 games with expanded rosters and extra bye week. It would mean more jobs and more money in their pockets.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

If the NFL expands its product it needs to commit to a full expansion of product. If they are allowed to dick around with a one game expansion they will get the revenue but not have to reinvest in the product.

20 Game season (Yes, add another month to Pro Football)
No change to number that make the playoffs
No change to number of teams
No change t0 4 Pre-season games (with rules being changed to help offenses, defenses are already 2-3 weeks late to catch up)
Expand 52 man roster to 60+
Expand Salary Cap

- The league is presently struggling with the the delicate balance between product quality and attrition. Slight changes allow them to milk more revenue while avoiding their attrition problem.

- The league has been at a 16 game season for 42 years since 1978. Players are bigger, stronger, faster, and hit harder. The roster has needed an expansion for a while now to allow for more rotation.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Why fix something that isn't broke?

16 game seasons have been the motto for over 40 years now.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

I'm not so sure that I want an extra bye week. Have you noticed how flat we come out following a bye? I can only imagine how two off weeks would affect this teams intensity. Seriously though, I understand the appeal of a 17 week season. We have Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night games but I feel like the market is just saturated with football at every turn as it is.

One of my big points is that teams actually need four preseason games to really evaluate players. I believe that most teams tend to gel with a couple of games together after the season kicks off and we would get a watered down product to start the season. jmho

However, if I get to see my Saints play one more prime time game each year then I won't be disappointed in the least as long as we can stay healthy as a team for that long. Who Dat!

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

The players. This looking at it from a health perspective. Season is long enough as it is.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

A grind.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

They discussed this on NFL Radio's Moving the Chains almost every off-season. Pat Kirwan says that NFL coaching staff's have decided on around 50 of their (first) final 53 before the first preseason game. The final few are determined by which ones make it through those preseason game healthy enough to start the regular season. They have also said the recent sloppy starts by NFL teams comes from the greatly reduced practice schedules (also supposedly for the safety of the players). The regular roster isn't going to gel until they actually get on the field together. 90% of the playing time during the preseason games come from players that will not be starting a single game once the regular season starts.

As for intensity, it does not go hand in hand with player safety. An extra bye week would aid player safety. No bye weeks might increase intensity, as would more intense practices, but that would never happen again.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

An extra bye week would break up that grind.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

To increase revenue. When they increased it to 14 games people said, "Why fix something that isn't broke?" When they increased it to 16 games people said, "Why fix something that isn't broke?"

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Not enough to make it worth it. From experience, the difference between 10 games are huge. But a season where you play 15-16 games are a completely different beast. I did this twice when we had a 12 game season and also played an european Championship adding 3 games as well as a playoff game.

Your body is so worn down towards the end that every added stress just might push it over the brink to breaking.
One week off is like putting a band-aid on a broken leg it does very little to remedy the problem. Its not until 1-2 months after the season one starts to feel like normal again.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

The NFL is a grind on the body.

See post #30 from someone who has played at a high level.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

No doubt it's a grind. Nobody says it isn't. But the argument the league is going to make is what difference is one more game offset by one extra week of rest. Concessions should include an expanded roster either on game day and/or overall. Another concession would be to increase the player pool's percentage of the overall revenue by a couple of percent. And as mentioned earlier, a relaxing on prohibitions against the use of marijuana and its related products. Also the expansion of the number of playoff teams by one giving only the top team in each conference a bye. This means an extra paycheck and is supported by players. Like it or not, the expansion of the season is very likely to happen. The only argument against it is a single game's worth of wear and tear and that is nominal considering the greatly reduced practice time.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Rugby players play in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Just sayin'.

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

because I'm a Saints fan, and I don't want one more week without football

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Getting this clear here, by not wanting one more week WITHOUT football, you would want one more week WITH football, correct?

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Now that's funny right d'ere...

https://media.giphy.com/media/RzIb0tqDYyP1C/giphy.gif

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Re: USA Today/Saints Wire: NFL still mulling over 17-game regular season in new CBA
 

Which is why an expansion needs to be of a size that the league is forced to increase roster size enough to lighten the wear and tare on players through out the season.

Increase the roster size and cap the regular season snap count.

Everyone ******* and moans about the quality of product with an influx of warm bodies but to be honest the Referees have made the product quite craptastic over the last few years. More-so than adding a dozen or so players to a roster. :bng: