Brown believes players' safety concerns will likely keep the regular season in its current formatGETTY IMAGES
Bengals Owner Mike Brown said that he "strongly opposes a suggestion to have an 18-game regular season and allow teams to rest players for two of the games," according to Joe Kay of the AP. Brown believes that players' safety concerns over adding games will "likely keep the regular season in its current format." Brown: "These seasons are long and they take a toll on you mentally, they take a toll on players physically. Maybe we should just step back and accept the 16 number and go with it." He added, "It isn't the way football has been played. Baseball is played that way, different pitchers and all. In our game, you get the best team out there, and I think that's the way it ought to be" (AP, 7/23).
DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD: THE MMQB's Andrew Brandt wrote while the proposed 18-game season will "draw much debate," he does not "see how a CBA is negotiated without it." With the NFLPA "giving up many concessions" in '11, an 18-game season is the "only paved path to a new CBA." Brandt: "What if, say, the NFLPA agrees to an 18-game season in return for the players' revenue share going up two percentage points, from 47% to 49%?" These two points would "not only, over the life of the deal, move billions of dollars from the owners' side to the players' side, but also give the players 49% (not 47%) of the incremental revenue from two extra games per season." There is "no other 'give' the NFLPA has that is nearly as valuable." For the NFLPA to get "any meaningful wins from the league in this CBA negotiation, the 18-game season is their paramount 'give'" (SI.com, 7/23). However, in Detroit, Dave Birkett wrote it is a "terrible idea to expand to an 18-game schedule, and an even worse one to limit the number of games a player can play to 16 if that were to happen." This is a "pure greed play that would seriously impact the quality of the game" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 7/23).
MEET IN THE MIDDLE: In Denver, Mark Kiszla predicts during the next CBA, an "agreement will be struck to expand the regular-season to 17 games" as early as '21. It is a "no-brainer to eliminate the risk of injury by trimming at least one, if not two, preseason games from the August schedule." Television revenues "derived from the introduction of a 17th regular season game might well add" as much as $1B to the NFL's "bottom line, benefiting both sides when owners and players sit down at the negotiating table" (DENVER POST, 7/24).
