Wednesday, July 28, 2010

AN APPROACH TO THE 18 GAME SEASON

How about this:  Teams Play 18 games with one bye week....BUT every player must sit out two non-consecutive hiatus games.  Hiatus players must be announced by noon local time Wed. and may not practice with the team Wed. or after.


Hiatus time may be merged with injured time but the hiatus games must be non-consecutive. 

6 Comments:

At 7:01 AM, July 28, 2010, Anonymous Jason said...

The 18 game season is a terrible awful no-good idea. With all the stuff we're learning with concussions in the NFL why does it make sense to expose players to two more weeks of trauma. The hiatus thing would never happen because no one wants to see, say, the Colts play without Peyton Manning. I suppose the owners want more revenue- but expanding the season will only wind up hurting the brand in the end by shortening the playing career (or lives) of their money-players and diluting the importance of the games played. The critique you always hear about the other leagues (MLB, NHL, and NBA) is that the seasons are too long and have too many meaningless games. Why would the NFL want to make the same mistake?

 
At 7:29 AM, July 28, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Or take a two week all-star break and play the pro bowl midseason?

 
At 9:28 AM, July 28, 2010, Blogger UMRBlog said...

0729,

If the Pro Bowl was a Quintathlon: Softball, Basketball, Ping Pong, Poker and Pistol Range that would be great. Well, Maybe not pistol range.

TYFCB

 
At 9:35 AM, July 28, 2010, Blogger UMRBlog said...

Jason,

Agreed. But it's gonna happen. Better my way than their way.

Imagine the strategy, Bears can either really try to Beat the Pats or rest Cutler that week so he's healthy against the packers. Rest Peppers and Harris at the same time and play the kids or Rest Peppers early in the heat when he's no good anyway and Harris Late when he's always about 70%? Rest your long snapper late so you have time to develop another one? How do you handle the Punter's hiatus, Kicker's.

For Playoff teams, the hiatus week could keep them from having to put some guy on injured reserve or burning the roster spot. Thus, recovered, he could play in the playoffs.

At least the Hiatus deals with the "extra" risk and adds some strategy and that's before you talk about the impact on Fantasy Freaks.

Too Bad Gene Upshaw's gone. He woulda liked it.

TYFCB

 
At 9:58 AM, July 28, 2010, Anonymous Jason said...

I see what you're saying. I guess if this is inevitable I'd rather have 2 or 3 byes per team rather than the hiatus thing though. I doubt the fans would be too happy about forking over their money to see the Pats only to find out Brady will be wearing a suit that week. Also wouldn't sitting Cutler be the Bears strategy for beating the Pats? :)
Another interesting wrinkle. They would have to play more Saturday games...but I think the NFL is barred from broadcasting games within 75 miles of an ongoing collegiate football game.

 
At 6:37 AM, July 29, 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are too many thugs in the NFL and NBA now for me to want to watch. Tattoos and some sort of trouble with the law seem to be prerequisite.

But toying with a required hiatus for two games seems a rather artificial addition to the game. It sounds as goofy as putting a hill and an obstacle in center field, which Houston did.

If the NFL adds games for more revenue, they risk having fewer stars healthy for the playoffs. They could always shorten the actual play time in a game, allowing for even more commercial revenue.

Actual play time is only about 11 minutes out of three hours. Dividing offense and defense and special teams, each player exerts/risks themselves for five minutes max.

http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

How about a 250 pound weight limit, so you don't have 360 pound obese refrigerators crushing "petite" little QB's and RB's.

But then again, maybe true fans really like the bone crushing violence. NFL could go to no helmets or pads, and one weapon. And the winner gets the other teams cheerleaders. Let's get more Neanderthal. :)

 

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