TheLastManInAmerica

Roger Goodell is just like you and me. Apparently, he’s not that big a fan of preseason football, either. Claiming that some preseason games are a poor reflection of the NFL product, he told reporters at Bengals camp that the league is “actively evaluating” whether to cut down the preseason and extend the regular season. Of course, by the “NFL product” he means he wishes to sell more of it, but who would disagree with this idea? It works out for everybody; the league will get millions upon millions of more dollars and the fans will get what they’ve always wanted: more football.

            At the owner’s meeting in May, Commissioner Goodell discussed the quality of the NFL preseason. It was considered that the league should add one regular season game and cut the preseason down to three. Most recently, however, he’s gone even farther, saying they could add two meaningful games to the schedule and cut preseason down to two. But I’ll do you one better, extend the regular season by three games and have them all be division games. As it is now, if two teams are tied for first at the end of the year they go to how they faired against the other in head to head play but with only two games played against each other they then go to points scored if the two teams split the head to head. A much better way to go about it would be a three game set used as the tiebreaker. And as one team would have to retain home field advantage for said series, it could be alternated each season.

            There’s no doubt of the lack of interest in preseason play. Of course, true fans like myself pay attention to get an idea of how our respective teams look, but the average football fan, the middle-aged business man and the fair-weather fan, only interested when the team is performing well, have no need for it. And that means less people pay to go see these games. If the games counted, that means hundreds of thousands of fans would be attending the stadium on these extra weeks which equals millions for the owners.

            And think of the players. How many really want to risk their bodies for four meaningless games. Sure, they get paid for them and all’s well but do they want to risk sustaining a vicious injury in the preseason that could put their season or career in jeopardy? During a preseason game against Baltimore, Michael Vick suffered a broken leg and missed the first 11 games of the year. And although starters rarely play a full game in August, all it takes is one good hit to put a star player out for a year or more. This is something else that owners should be mindful of; without a star player to draw in the crowds and help the team win, they will lose money. I hate for it to keep coming back to that but if you want to get through to owners, it’s the route you must take.

            With more games that matter, more people will tune in and more people will spend money. As a fan, I loath the end of football season, I hate the idea of waiting six more months before I can see some action on the gridiron. If we could speed up by the off season by as little as three weeks, I’d be ecstatic! There isn’t a real downside to the idea of an extended season, either. The only one that could be remotely considered a downside is more time for injuries. But those could come at any time and at least now it would be more likely to happen in a meaningful game. It’s a great idea that is guaranteed to please everyone. Just as long as those games aren’t exclusively broadcasted on NFL Network, that is!

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