Rewind your thoughts to last year’s NFL off-season and smack dab in the middle of the bickering between the players and owners about revenue sharing, you had NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell casually bring up the 18 game schedule. It wasn’t the hot button topic of the negotiations, but it was still there simmering in wait.
According to Goodell and many of the NFL owners it was a foregone conclusion that the league would eventually shift from a 16 to an 18 game season, but recent comments from Green Bay Packers President Mark Murphy adds some doubt to the possibility.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
“… to be honest with you, I couldn’t support a move to 18,” Murphy said. “I just think with all the focus on the player health and safety, it would be really hard to do that…”
Thank goodness. It seems all the recent concussion based lawsuits being brought against the NFL has the owners re-evaluating the decision on whether to add two more games to the already dangerous sport.
At this very moment, awareness on player safety is at an all time high. With over 2000 former players suing the NFL over concussion related issues and the bounty scandal still fresh in fans minds, the rules are being changed every year to make football safer.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement that the owners and players agreed on last year was a 10 year deal. Goodell hoped to address the change to 18 games before the current CBA expired, but now it seems unlikely they ever will. As long as the NFL stays on this safety first agenda, the likelihood of ever adding two more regular season games appears completely dead.
