A Smarter 16-game NFL Schedule for those wanting their cake and to eat it too -- Sports Thoughts for February 21, 2011

Of all the issues on the table of discussion regarding the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), the proposed 18-game schedule is one among the most-contentious to me. I recently offered my unsolicited views to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. Copied on that letter was New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers. No one responded to my thoughts. Here’s an edited excerpt from that letter:

The 18-game schedule idea is ill-advised, to put it diplomatically. League revenue and player salaries are irrelevant to me on this matter. A 16-game regular season is more than sufficient in terms of providing football fans their “fix” and duration of a season. I can take or leave preseason games, in all honesty, whether they be two or four. If the goal is to extend the NFL season’s three phases (preseason, regular season, postseason) with high-quality football fans pay to see in stadiums around the country, perhaps a wiser use of the existing 4-16 game setup is called for as opposed to a 2-18 setup.

As much as I love the Hall of Fame game, I no longer see the logic or value to two teams having an advanced fifth game. No team should play more than four preseason games, period. Let whichever teams chosen to play in the Hall of Fame game play only four preseason games and provide economic offsets to compensate teams and fans for losing an extra home preseason game. Considering the cost of tickets and attendance figures for preseason games, smart guys like you should be able to think creatively and find a way to make these games more worthwhile for fans and more cost-effective for teams and the league.

What you could do to improve the quality of these games is to spread them out more during August and early September with bye weeks, giving veteran players more opportunities for rest and perhaps encouraging teams to play veterans a little more each game, rather than the mode teams currently operate. Perhaps then you won’t see teams playing 1.5 “real games” and 2.5 “rookie scrimmages.”

This leads me to the real crux of length of season, schedules, and player safety: bye weeks. You simply do not have enough to compensate teams for the level of injuries that keep piling up during a season. I think it would be prudent for the preseason to spread 4 games over a 5-week period, providing each team a bye week and perhaps reducing injury risks players might normally face when 4 games are crammed within 3.5 weeks.

As for the regular season, with a 16-game schedule there needs to be TWO bye weeks for each team, and if you want to go to an 18-game schedule, then each team needs three bye weeks. It no longer makes sense for any NFL team to play 7-8-9-10 consecutive weeks anymore. It’s too much weekly exposure to injury risk and inadequate time to heal from the progression of injuries.

As for the postseason, perhaps it might make sense to give all teams a week off prior to the wild card round, just as there’s a week off between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Yes, that gives top seeds two bye weeks prior to the divisional round, but at least this allows for all teams to be sufficiently rested and healed entering their postseason games, AND the week off prior to the wild card round might offer the league flexibility in the event of weather issues, as was the case with games late in this past regular season game (Giants-Vikings, Vikings-Eagles). Yes, I know this is football as opposed to baseball, but we’re also in a new era of global warming and dysfunctional airports and roads during major snow storms.

So, if you put the preseason and regular season schedules in a 4-16 setup according to my proposal (with five total bye weeks), here’s what your new calendar (Thursday-Monday) could look like:

August 4-8: Opening pre-season weekend (including Hall of Fame game)
Aug. 11-15: pre-season weekend #2
Aug. 18-22: pre-season weekend #3
Aug. 25-29: pre-season weekend #4
Sept. 1-5: pre-season weekend #5 (Labor Day weekend)

Sept. 8-12: Regular season kickoff weekend
Sept. 15-19: Regular season weekend #2
Sept. 22-26: Regular season weekend #3
Sept. 29-Oct. 3: Regular season weekend #4
Oct. 6-10: Regular season weekend #5
Oct. 13-17: Regular season weekend #6
Oct. 20-24: Regular season weekend #7
Oct. 27-31: Regular season weekend #8
Nov. 3-7: Regular season weekend #9
Nov. 10-14: Regular season weekend #10
Nov. 17-21: Regular season weekend #11
Nov. 24-28: Regular season weekend #12 (Thanksgiving weekend)
Dec. 1-5: Regular season weekend #13
Dec. 8-12: Regular season weekend #14
Dec. 15-19: Regular season weekend #15
Dec. 22-26: Regular season weekend #16 (X-mas weekend)
Dec. 29-Jan. 2: Regular season weekend #17 (New Year’s weekend)
Jan. 5-9: Regular season weekend #18

Jan. 12-16: Regular/Post season bye weekend

Jan. 19-23: Wild card weekend
Jan. 26-30: Divisional Playoff weekend
Feb. 2-6: Conference Title game weekend
Feb. 9-13: Postseason bye weekend (Pro Bowl?)
Feb. 16-20: Super Bowl weekend

According to my count, that’s a 32-week NFL season with 31 weeks providing fans at least one game to watch among your affiliated TV networks. Too complicated? Not to me, and players from both potential super bowl teams will have the benefit of five bye weeks during their path to the Super Bowl (including the Pro Bowl week).

What to do about team rosters? Expand to 55 active players, in addition to a six-man practice squad, and change the Injured Reserved rules to six weeks as a prerequisite for reinstatement to the active roster instead of players being lost for an entire season or taking up a dead roster spot while they heal from injuries.

To recap:
1. A five-week preseason, where every team only plays four.
2. An 18-week regular season, where every team plays 16.
3. A bye week before the wild card round to account for weather-postponed games or injured players healing
4. Six-week postseason to maximize fan interest and captivation/obsession with the NFL
5. 32 straight weeks of NFL football for the adoring masses of fans
6. 32 weeks of NFL television broadcasting and revenue
7. An NFL season that doesn’t end until pitchers and catcher report to spring training
8. The regular season didn’t increase one iota for individual players

Take-home lesson:
Do the math. Everyone wins. One less issue to battle over.