One of the very best amateur NFL writers out there has weighed in on the possibility of the NFL expanding its regular season schedule to 18 games. That would be Tim Gleason, better known as maryrose, on SB Nation’s Pittsburgh Steelers site, Behind the Steel Curtain.
Mr. Gleason’s piece, which was featured in the Washington Post’s NFL League Panel this morning, is worthy of a read in its entirety, but here’s a few choice cuts to give you a sense of his stance.
The commissioner’s second argument is that the fans are not getting their money’s worth, paying full price for two preseason games. That argument is cosmetic and can be remedied by simple math. The Steelers and every other team can simply cut the price of the preseason games in half and add 12 percent to each regular-season game. The total invoice would be the same for the same inventory. I would bet the farm that no one would care (I would not, and I am one of the season-ticket holders that Mr. Goodell is supposedly thinking about). How would his argument fly then?…
There are at least two current problems within the NFL which will be exacerbated by the commissioner’s decree. The first is the injury situation. Due to today’s weight training and nutrition, players are bigger, stronger and faster than ever. Body collisions are more impactful and more stressful. We might be asking too much for players to be smacking each other for 16 days. Now we ask two more? The league recently went on a chivalrous campaign to reduce and treat concussions, and now it wants the players to bang heads a couple more times?