18 Game Season

[Reignman]

I'm quoting this from the 14 team playoff topic. I didn't want to derail that thread, so I decided to start a new topic for my crack pot 18 game season idea xD.

New NFLPA president Eric Winston guaranteed that an 18-game season will not happen under his watch.

Eric, Eric, Eric ... you're just not thinking outside the box on this one.

They could expand to an 18 game schedule and still limit individual players to 16 games. They could require every player to be scratched for 2 games. The teams would get to decide which players are scratched, and for which games. Let them keep it a secret too, so their opponents don't know who to game plan for each week xD. And ofc just to mess with fantasy football owners too.

This idea would also eliminate the need for bye weeks. They could expand rosters ($ more players in the union Mr. Winston $ #ChaChing). Backups (and players that wouldn't normally make a team) would get actual game opportunites in which to prove themselves instead of in meaningless preseason games vs other 3rd stringers.

It would certainly add another dimension to the game. When do you sit your star players? Verses a bad team? Maybe you wait until you got home field wrapped up? Maybe you wait until they get injured? You can't wait too long though, you don't want to be in a tight division or playoff race late and still need to sit some of your key players. That would get interesting quick. Match-ups and roles players would be more important.

It would give us fans one more thing to complain about xD. Oh man, that alone already makes me LOVE this idea! Come on Zim! Why didn't you sit AD back in October? Now the division is on the line and he still has to sit 2 games. Moron! Haha, yeah, coaches would totally hate this idea.

I really really hate bye weeks and I wish they'd go away. Plus I think the NFL season is too short. I understand the injury concern so this would be a good work around, maybe (I haven't thought of all the cons yet). And did I mention it would mean more $ money $ for everyone? The league, owners, union, networks, agents, players, waterboys ... they all get to cash in. I just want more football!

And Green Bay fans would have to suffer through at least 2 games a year without wonder boy. Giggity! Or think about it from our perspective, we wouldn't be forced to suffer through an entire season with a scrub like Ponder again. We'd get a break for at least 2 games xD. You know, just in case we get another stubborn coach who insists on playing his own guys ahead of the backups who are clearly better. We'd get a much earlier look at Joe Webb, and he'd get more reps before he's thrust into a playoff game at the last minute, or at the very least, we'd find out he's a waste of a roster spot before we get to the most important game of the year.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -schedule/

The concept would cause strong reactions, in both directions. Though a union source has described the possibility of an 18-game season with a 16-game limit per player as “fascinating,” many fans would disagree. Loudly.

I guess that "union source" wasn't Eric Winston because "fascinating" sounds a bit more open minded whereas "not under my watch" is more of the closed variety.

[Eli]

Or, they could go from playing 16 games in 17 weeks to 16 games in 18 or 19 weeks. It would increase TV revenue substantially, without requiring anyone to play an extra down. You just don't get the extra gate and local stadium revenue that an 18 game season would give you. The NFL fan can only watch so much football on a weekend. So if, instead of playing 14 games on Sunday, they only played 12 (or whatever it works out to), people will still be on the couch on Sunday following their fantasy leagues and sucking down light beer.

(I hate this idea, btw. If it were up to me, we'd go back to a 14 game schedule.)

[Reignman]

Or, they could go from playing 16 games in 17 weeks to 16 games in 18 or 19 weeks. It would increase TV revenue substantially, without requiring anyone to play an extra down. You just don't get the extra gate and local stadium revenue that an 18 game season would give you. The NFL fan can only watch so much football on a weekend. So if, instead of playing 14 games on Sunday, they only played 12 (or whatever it works out to), people will still be on the couch on Sunday following their fantasy leagues and sucking down light beer.

(I hate this idea, btw. If it were up to me, we'd go back to a 14 game schedule.)

Oh man I hate you for that idea lol. So you're saying 2 or even 3 bye weeks per season per team? Hell no to that! They tried 2 bye weeks back in 1993 and that idea only lasted 1 season for whatever reason. Every team should play every week IMO. I hate when the Vikings have a bye. And why would you want to go back to a 14 game schedule? You want to see less football?

I think that's pretty clever. My concern is that it would work so well that they wouldn't stop at 18, I mean, why not 20? 24? And before long each game means less than it did before. But I do like that idea as it adds another level of strategy to the game.

Yeah I was thinking it could be expanded to 20 games or more too, with each player having 4 scratch games, but I think you're starting to water down the talent if you go that far (not that the league would care if it meant more money), or like you mentioned, the more games you play the less important they become if you start to play too many. You know, like baseball xD. Way too many games in baseball which is partly why I don't watch it. You could even say that about basketball and hockey. But yes, I like the strategy that would come with an 18 game season too. And it would mean getting to watch more football!

[Laserman]

18 game season will require an 80 men squad

[Reignman]

18 game season will require an 80 men squad

How do you arrive at 80? Adding 2 games to the schedule means adding 27 more players to the squad? Even if you kept rosters at 53, you'd need to scratch 6 players per week to give every player 2 weeks off over 18 weeks. That sounds like a lot, but teams can only have 46 active players on game day as it is, so coaches already have to deal with scratching 7 players every week. However, I assume they'd increase roster size if they went to 18 games because there would be 2 less preseason games, but I don't think they need to go as high as 80 for the regular season.