Following the NFL and the players’ insane decision to stop football and enter a work stoppage, the league detailed one of its final proposals to the players and one of the concessions they apparently made came on the 18-game season. As many of you know, the owners were pushing for it while the players, and many fans, weren’t interested in the idea.
NFL Lockout May End 18-Game Season Debate
The league essentially said in its proposal that they would stay at 16 games for the next two seasons and wouldn’t go to 18 games beyond that unless the players approved. Peter King of SI.com notes the absurdity of the 18-game schedule:
The players hated the 18-game season with a passion, and for good reason. Injuries are an epidemic; in game 17 this year, New Orleans got to the fourth quarter of the wild-card showdown at Seattle with its eighth running back of the season ready to go. The first five were on IR. The next two got hurt earlier in that game. I could pick 10 other examples to make the case for not playing more real games, but it’s just common sense. Goodell got it. Just like that, it’s gone.
The league felt they made a major concession by tabling the 18-game season talk and the union didn’t respond with more concessions pushing the two sides closer to a deal. I’m not sure the union should be considering the league’s decision to drop the 18-game season as a debate. No one -- except the league -- wanted 18 games. Why give concessions on something that was a little wacky to begin with?
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