When The NFL Says 18 Could They Really Mean 17?
One of the major sticking points in the ongoing NFL labor negotiations is the expanded regular season schedule that the league is pushing for.
Unlike the last time the NFL expanded the schedule, they're being met with plenty of opposition in the pursuit of their 18-game season.
"When the league increased from 14 to 16 games back in the '70s it barely registered a blimp on the radar screen, now that was back in the days of three television channels and ESPN and no internet," Mike Florio, of ProFootballTalk.com, said on the Danny Mac Show. "So there wasn't really a vehicle for people to complain if they didn't like it, but it just kind of happened and nobody said anything and they went from six preseason [games] to four and 14 regular season [games] to 16.
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"But there's just a sense that's it's too much to add two regular season games. And I think one of the big issues is the ongoing focus and attention that's being placed on chronic head injuries. That if you really want to keep players healthy, the way to do it is to not expose them to two extra games every year. And the NFL has a way of talking their way around it, but the bottom line is that the starter's would play more times...And it could be all along that the goal was to go to 17. And if that was the goal, the NFL played it perfectly because they will look like great guys and reasonable and wise and prudent by saying 'OK, OK we're not going to insist on 18, we'll do 17.' And I think the players would be happy to agree to 17 because they think they're having 18 shoved down their throats."
