There are workable avenues to 16 & 2. Expanded playoffs to replace lost revenue, joint practices to evaluate players.
""I'm not sure, talking with coaches, that four preseason games is necessary anymore to get ready for a season to evaluate players, develop players," he added. "There are other ways of doing that ..." Roger Goodell [
www.espn.com]
" ... the owners presumably will seek something in exchange for reducing the preseason, whether that means a longer regular season
or an expanded postseason. ..." [
www.washingtonpost.com]
And here' Bill Belichik from the article "Practice? Yes, but NFL
joint practices far better than preseason games" [
www.sportingnews.com]
"We may get a handful of red-area plays in the preseason games,'' Belichick said before Tuesday's joint practice. "Don't know, we might not. But we know we're going to get probably over 25 today. Same thing on third down-I don't know how many third downs some of our guys who are going to have a lot of playing time during the year are going to get in preseason, but by the end of the week we'll probably have 30 third down situations here.
"
You just can't get the reps in preseason games like you can get out here on the practice fields.''
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p.s. 21,000 people attended this joint practice in Richmond, VA - population 227,032. There are 65 cities in the USA with a larger population that don't have an NFL team. Hold joint practices in them, charge admission, televise them!
AlbaNY_Ram
