I fully believe it is human nature; I like it, so give me more of it.
OK, this may work for money, sex, and Rocky movies, but not so much football. NFL Football doesn’t go into that category. It more-or-less belongs in the category of candy, ice cream, and using your cell phone in public.
I get that players, owners, and television sponsors all like the idea of an extended season. You bring it up in conversation, and a lot of them just have dollar signs in their eyes like an old Warner Brothers cartoon. However, one pro bowl quarterback said differently.
Carson Palmer, quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals, was on ESPN’s Mike and Mike radio show this morning and brought up a valid point that he claims the majority of players feel. He stated that with an 18-game season, it takes away the one thing that football has over every other sport; the feeling that every game matters.
Even the most diehard basketball or baseball fan knows that they’ll miss seeing their favorite team on national television. But the vast majority of them won’t mind it nearly as much as your diehard Redskins fan who absolutely NEEDS to see their team on the field every week. Same even in goes for college football. Thanks to their ten-game season, if you drop one game to UVA or Appalachian State, you can kiss your National Title hopes goodbye.
Be prepared NFL fan, your Colts and Saints will be able to tank more games than ever. Your Patriots and Vikings of years to come will be able to play their backups because they’ll be able to clinch their respective playoff spots earlier than ever. And let’s not forget the horrendous teams, the Lions, the Rams, the Browns, and the Buccaneers of the world will be able to throw in their rookie quarterbacks, interim head coaches, and new (usually bad) gameplans in at week eight because they’ve already been lapped by their division rivals.
So what am I saying? If you’re ready for an 18-game season, then get ready to watch more horrible football. We’re not adding two quality games to every team’s schedule; we’re watering the product down.
Adding more games is not the problem with the NFL games, its adding quality to the ones they already play. If somehow you can promise me that Peyton Manning will be playing in week 17, then I’ll watch. If you can promise me that the Browns’ head coach won’t be fire before the season’s end, then maybe the team won’t be on the threat of blacking out their last two home games. That’s the bigger problem with the league, not the fact that we don’t get enough games to watch on television, but that not all of the ones they currently play are at the NFL standard of quality.
And for those who are quick to point out that they’d rather have watered down games than preseason games, I ask you to do one thing for me. Explain to me why this past week’s Minnesota vs San Francisco drew 10.8 million viewers? Was it to watch Bret Farve throw one pass? Fans might say they hate the preseason, but you still watch. Numbers don’t lie.
So obviously I’m against extending the regular season, at least until we fix the quality of the 16 games they currently play. However I welcome anyone to express to me why I should feel differently.
I disagree that it is necessarily watering the product down. I think the teams not playing starters in the final week is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed but also feel like you can't address it.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants to lose their star players before the one and done games begin. So they are gonna sit them if they have it clinched regardless of the number of games played.
Adding an extra 2 games can keep some players in longer. The extra 2 games allow more teams to be mathematically still in the playoff race. So the team that has that number 4,5, or 6 slot still have to keep their players playing. And the players still have to play at 100% rather than 80% to make sure they stay in the hunt.
It can have a positive effect but I also disagree that it won't solve the "Peyton Manning sitting week 17" issue either.
Couple things you also have to remember, by adding 2 games and shortening the preseason, that means coaches will increase the intensity of training game. In other words; more injuries.
ReplyDeleteWith more injuries and less time between preseason games, you're now also starting the regular season with less stars. In other wordsl; worse product on the field.
Not to mention, with more games to lose, the weaker teams will be even worst than before.