Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy said that the league's competition committee has "had lengthy discussions about reducing the preseason to three games," according to Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com. Murphy said that he "believes there's enough support around the league to eliminate one week of the preseason." Murphy, echoing the sentiment that Packers coach Mike McCarthy expressed earlier last week, said, "Rather than playing that fourth game on a Thursday ... don't play a fourth game and then you'd have an extra week. We've looked at different models, but I think that's the one that makes the most sense. You're giving up some revenue, but it's one of the worst things we do. The move we made on variable (ticket) pricing helps a little bit in how preseason is viewed, but especially that fourth game is kind of a throwaway" (ESPN.com, 2/26). In Boston, Ben Volin noted starters and key players "rarely play in the final preseason game, and although the games serve as a good opportunity to evaluate the bottom-of-the-roster players, teams will figure out another way to get the job done." However, team owners likely will not "agree to eliminate the fourth preseason game until they can find a way to replace the revenue" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/28).
SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA: ESPN's Michael Wilbon said eliminating the fourth preseason game is a “sharp idea.” ESPN’s Tony Kornheiser: "You don’t even need three. You need two, if you even need two.” Kornheiser: “I know a lot of people will say, ‘Well, this is part of a master plan on the part of the NFL to sneak a 17th game in there.’ ... The fact is that the link to CTE is pretty obvious, so you don’t want to do that. You stay with 16, which is the right amount, and you don't put the players in this sort of jeopardy in more games for no reason.” Wilbon: “Get rid of these phony games” (“PTI,” ESPN, 2/26).
