Enough Already!
Is that Hank Williams Jr. tuning up "Are You Ready For More Football"? First comes the threat of a lockout followed by 2012 the year of the 18 game regular season. The commish and NFL owners recently gathered at a posh Atlanta hotel and determined that if you like a good size serving of NFL football you would love to Super Size it.
Fans love NFL football and I assumed that offering two more regular season games and two less practice games (sorry Mr. Go0dell , "pre-season games") would be a no-brainer to us the adoring public, not the case. An ESPN poll that had some 120,000 responses was split right down the middle on the 18 game question. If fans aren't sure about this 18 game schedule, players damn well should be!
When John Unitas started throwing TD passes in Baltimore, 12 games made up the regular season. In 1961 the season was stretched to 14 games, in 1978 they decided if 14 was good 16 would be better, and now 16 isn't nearly enough.
What's this all about? I don't think the President or Surgeon General (do we still have one of those?) dictated it. It looks a little sinister to me, almost like if we can't break your bones or tear your ligaments in 16 games we'll throw you out there for two more games and bust you up.
While the NFL home office gathers concussion data and acts like they really care about the short and long-term condition of the players, their actions say we'll beat your brains out then deposit in the morning.
Patriots owner Bob Kraft on the expanded schedule, "I really think going to an 18 game season is critical to us getting a labor deal," he said. "There's not a lot of ways in this economic environment we can generate incremental revenues. That's the best way."
Follow the money and you'll trip over the answer to the 18 game schedule, it's G-R-E-E-D!!!
Here's the deal, the players currently get somewhere around 60% of the NFL's gross revenue. The owners say they can't live with that and that's why they opted out of the collective bargaining agreement and are threatening to lockout the players next season.
If the owners take back three to four percent of the games revenue, what can they offer the union in return? Hey guys how 'bout two more game checks to make up the difference. The added money comes from the NFL's partner TV networks. The networks knows the two additional regular season games bring more eyeballs (aka ratings). Eyeballs mean revenue and for that the networks will give the NFL big bags of money that they can split with the players.
So to sum it up....fans get more football, networks get more ratings and owners and players get large bags of money. Sounds like America to me, the problem is at what cost are the players' bags of money?
If the players union, lead by new executive director DeMaurice Smith, accepts the 18 game schedule you'll know it's about the bags of money and not the welfare of the players. The game has never been faster and more violent nor the injuries more severe.
Ray Lewis said it best, "We're not automobiles we're human beings." Nobody prepares better or has more passion for the game than Ray Lewis, but he understands money is nice but so is walking and not being demented when you're 55 years old. But 18 games isn't about Ray or any other player or fan it's all about the $$$$. Check please!
