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moklerman
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PeoriaRa
Everyone talks about 16 vs 18 but no one seems to talk about 17. Here is my proposal for what I would like to see:
2 Game preseason (enough for the rooks and bubble players to show their stuff)
17 regular season games ( one more to make the owners and fans like me happy)
2 byes during the regular season (this gives players one more chance to rest and heal up, plus makes the full regular season 19 games long)
In terms of scheduling, I would take that one additional game and make it always vs the same team each year, picking potential rivalries that make sense and that don't necessarily happen in current scheduling. A great example would be to make Rams/Chargers (AKA LA Bowl) happen every year. (Not sure what you do the year they play that team as part of regular rotation, maybe just play that team twice that year, adding to the potential rivalry-building nature of this extra game.) Maybe you even call that weekend Rivalry Weekend and market it that way. Other possible rivalries I would like to see annually - The Texas Bowl (Cowbos/Texans) maybe 49ers/Raiders. If you made all of the games AFC/NFC then you could keep score of which Conference won Rivalry Weekend each year. Giants/Jets would be a natural as well.
So there it is, make me Grand Poobah of the NFL and that is what I would do.
It honestly doesn't matter what we want.
The players don't want additional games.
Consequently, there will not be additional games.
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But there are things that the players do want and the length of the season will be a bargaining chip. I would wager that the players hate training camp and the preseason more than they hate playing each week so 2 fewer weeks of that in favor of more guaranteed contracts and more paychecks would easily get 2 more games on the schedule.
Players aren't militantly trying to negotiate away training camp.
They are militantly resisting an 18 game schedule.
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Well, since a big part of past CBA's have to do with restrictions and limitations of how much teams can make players practice in training camp, I'd say you were incorrect. The players hate training camp and have given up major concessions in negotiations to practice less.
And no one said they weren't resisting an 18 game schedule. But resisting doesn't equal "won't do it". It is all part of the negotiations. The players want guaranteed contracts and a bigger portion of the revenue. Those demands will be negotiated with an 18 game schedule and less/no preseason games.
Stating as fact that they won't go to an 18 game season is contrary to all the things involved. The NFL has historically increased the length of the season and decreased the length of the preseason. It's bound to happen again at some point and with the players wanting specific things in the new CBA, it will likely happen as part of the new agreement.