FanPost

Schedule and Other Fixes for the NFL

After a month of pre-season games no one wanted to watch or play, it's time to address the schedule fixes ailing the NFL, plus as a bonus, changes to OT rules. I do not see any of these fixes being implemented until next CBA discussions and, of course, the big money contracts with the broadcast networks will have as much say or more as the NFL Players Association and NFL owners.

18 Game Season:

Those of us old enough still remember a 14 game regular season with a six game preseason schedule. Chew on that for a minute Millennials and Next Geners. It wasn't until 1978 that the league went to the current format of 16 games and four preseason games. In 1990 came the Bye Week, creating the current 17 week season.

Any change to an 18 game season and 2 game preseason schedule will require NFLPA buy-in. The owners and networks would be all-in with two more games that mean something, as in Chaaaa-Ching! The NFLPA would be the stumbling block, making sure their members are appropriately compensated. Additionaly, there is the very real increased injury/risk factor concern by playing two more meaningful games for the players.

Setting aside the division of money for the games, the solution is an 18 game season with two Bye Weeks. A second bye week would help alleviate injury concerns associated with the lengthened season for the NFLPA. This would also create 20 weeks of football instead of the current 17 weeks of football. Each team would have an early Bye Week, say between weeks 4 and 8 plus a second later Bye Week between weeks 12 and 16. Can we all say this together for those looking to get paid for 20 weeks of meaningful football: Chaaaa-Ching!

An 18 game regular season would require starting the regular season two weeks earlier, replacing the Weeks 3 and 4 of the preseason. The second Bye Week would require extending the regular season into January one week and either pushing the Super Bowl into the second weekend in February or eliminating the extra week between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.

I personally prefer the former and keeping the extra week between the Championships and Super Bowl. As a Fan-Fest participant at SB50 for both Saturdays in San Francisco, that is an incredible fan experience. It's the NFL paying back and actually giving something of value to the fans and much of it is for free. That was a great, great experience and I would hate for have others to miss out.

Roster Size:

Addressing further concerns about player safety, change current rules to allow all 53 players healthy enough to dress on game day instead of the current 46. Why are these 7 players getting paid to not play? Given, on any Sunday, several would not dress anyway due to injury. However, what is the rational to not dress all players that are healthy? The NFLPA would probably argue in favor of expanding rosters to 55 or 56, based on the lengthened season and addressing player health and safety concerns. Allowing all healthy players to dress on game day just makes too much sense.

Changing Regular Season and Play-Off OT Rules:

Change OT Rules back to 15 minutes for regular season games. This ties into the roster size discussion allowing all healthy players to dress and be activated for game day. The argument for reducing OT to 10 minutes is based, again, on player safety concerns. Allowing all healthy players to dress should alleviate the concern for the extra 5 minutes of OT through liberal substitutions throughout the game, including special team.


Second, it is time to allow both teams the opportunity to score in OT. The best way I see is a hybrid rule similar to College Football: Eliminate all kickoffs and allow each team to start from their own 25 with the ball, not the opposing team's 25. This would allow both teams a fair opportunity to win the game by either outscoring the opposition on their one drive, or by scoring a TD or Safety on defense. If tied after one possession, then next score wins for regular season and playoffs, or a tie if time runs out in regular season game. Place the ball back on the opposing 25 with the team with the second possession having the third possession. This still places a premium on winning the coin toss, but does bring in a "take the ball or defer" decision back into the mix, eyeing that third possession. These OT rules fairly allows each team an opportunity with the ball on offense and defense to win the game.

There you have it Bronco Country. I've been mulling these ideas all summer and finally put fingers to keyboard. Hit me up in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.