NFL regular season expansion

     There has been a lot of talk recently about expanding the NFL regular season from 16 regular games to 18 games. Many people like this idea, thinking that there will be more football to watch during the year. I am, however, against the idea of expanding. The NFL has been with 16 games since 1978 and I think it is probably the perfect number. Even though I am a huge football fan and relish every down that is played, I am worried about the quality of football rather than the quantity of football. My case in point is injuries, I hate to see players get hurt. The lone exception would be Tim Tebow, I'll go into detail my hatred towards him in another blog I am sure. But when players get hurt the quality of the game goes down, especially if it is a star player, such as Tom Brady. Playing two more games, and subsequently two less pre-season games, only adds to the risk of players getting hurt. By the time the regular season is nearly over, we see teams resting their starters, or for the teams that still have to compete we see players have a decline in quality.
 
     Case in point is Brett Favre, especially in the 2008-2009 season. Even though I was on my mission during the regular season, I still have noticed his stats, and he clearly had a decline in play the second half of the season. Overall he had a pretty good season, especially when you consider his age. His stats were 3,472 passing yards, while completing 65.7% of his passes, a very high mark in the NFL. He also had 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions, a little low on the TD side for the all time leader in passing TD's and a somewhat high number for the gunslinger who isn't afraid to throw an interception. However Brett Favre clearly had a much better first half than second half of the season. 15 of his 22 touchdowns for the season came in the first 8 games, with 6 coming against the Arizona Cardinals. That means in the last 8 games he had 7 touchdowns, and even worse is during the last 5 games he was a total of two(2) touchdowns. So in the second half of the season he had 7 touchdowns compared to 10 interceptions. All of this happened while the Jets were contending for a playoff spot. This happens with other players too, why do you think teams try so hard to get a first round bye in the playoffs? The rest is crucial for the players health and for the teams success.

     Also with the expansion of the regular season, the pre-season would be cut down to two games, some people would think this is a great thing, claiming that the pre-season is boring. Now granted it is not as exciting as the regular season, but it is still necessary. The pre-season lets players get in sync  with each other during real game situations. This also is a time for lower drafted players to try and shine and make the team. With two less games, these players will have of a chance to prove themselves and get a roster spot. Have you ever noticed how during the opening weekend that most games have a lot of penalties and that teams don't seem to be in rhythm? It is because they are still lacking the time of playing together. For me, the first week of the season is great, but at the same time frustrating because you see a lot of stupid penalties, such as holding, offsides ect,.. You take away two pre-season games and the timing will only get worse and again the quality of the game will go down.

     Injuries are part of the game, but its not a pretty part. The Philadelphia Eagles know this well. When Donovan McNabb was a member of the team he was always hurt, and the Eagles would usually lose a game or two without their captain. However, Eagles fans are even more aware of injuries. After their first regular season game the Eagles put two key players on the injured reserve. Starting center Jamall Jackson, who is out with a triceps injury, and Fullback Leonard Weaver, knee injury. When a player gets put on the IR it means that there season is over, they cannot play for the season due to injury. Eagles also had their starting QB Kevin Kolb and MLB Stewart Bradley go out with concussions.

     The NFL has updated and created a lot of rules to help protect its players, especially the QB's. You cannot blame the NFL for doing so, quarterbacks are the highest paid position and sell the most tickets. Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, Daunte Culpepper and Drew Brees have all suffered very serious and career threatening injuries in the past few years, and the NFL is trying to protect them. Now you can't hit a QB at the knee's, and pretty much can't hit them hard at all. Do I agree with these rules? Not exactly, QB's are suppose to get hit, its part of the game(look at the Saints/Vikings NFC championship game), but it is still part of the rules. So why would the NFL want to expand the regular season if they are so concerned about the health of their players? It makes no sense to me logically. However financially it does. More regular season games means more money for the owners. More greed from already filthy rich men. Especially with a possible NFL lockout coming next season, due to the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and players union expiring next year, the last thing the NFL needs to worry about is adding more games, they need to worry about making sure that there will be football next fall.

     Also another thought, is if players have to play two additional games they will want to be paid more, imagine for a moment the mess that will ensue if every player in the NFL wants a raise, since they do have to play two more games. With the NFL wanting to lower players salaries due to the bad economy, I can not see any good coming from players wanting raises, even though their desires are justified.

     Lots of football players get hurt, it is part of the game like I said before, but we don't need to put the players at further risk of injury and  deteriorate the quality of games that we see. There are so many issues regarding expanding the regular season, these are some of my thoughts as to why it would be a bad idea