The NFL is a very
dangerous and physically demanding sport. Injuries like torn hamstrings and knee
ligaments are commonplace. Thursday Night Football isn’t popular among players because
of rest issues. Richard Sherman outlined
that last year in an article for The Players Tribune. So, by adding more
time for players to recover would be something that the players would surely
rejoice in having. It would provide a wide array of benefits, and not just for
the players; the league and its fans would reap from it.
How could this be
accomplished? Well, the league could start by adding in another bye week for
teams, making the season 18 weeks. Of course, this is in a perfect would where
collective bargaining doesn’t exist. In this new schedule, the regular season
lasts 18 weeks with every team getting two bye weeks and the Pro Bowl is
scrapped because players aren’t a fan if it in order to make sure the Super
Bowl is the first Sunday of February.
This means that
there is no longer a gap between the Conference Championships and the Super
Bowl. To make sure it stays, the NFL can play the Hall of Fame Game the
Saturday the rest of the NFL plays their first pre-season game, which would occur
the next day. Alternatively, all teams play the weekend of the Hall of Fame
game, and the regular season starts a week earlier, meaning the Post Season
schedule remains as is today. Or, finally, they could simply scrap the final
week of the Pre-Season.
Again, this is in
a scenario where the idea of collective bargaining doesn’t exist, but it does
meaning the league would have to get something out of it or the players would
have to give something. Something big because it means less teams are playing
each weekend, hence fewer games being played, meaning less money, all in
addition to the fact that they no longer have the Pro Bowl.
By adding in
another bye week, players are more rested coming into the end of the season.
This means, among other things, players would have the ability to put more
effort in and the risk of injury goes down. The latter has other benefits too,
as the risk of injuries that cause players to miss the postseason or the start
of the next season goes down, more people are inclined to tune into or come to
a game. It also means fewer Derek Carr type injuries where a Super Bowl
contender (who already qualified for the playoffs) falls flat on their faces in
the Post Season due to a big injury. This leads more interesting matchups,
higher TV ratings, and in general, a more interesting Post Season.
For me at least –
but presumably lots of others – I didn’t watch much of the AFC Post Season in
January because the path to the Super Bowl was wide open for the Patriots. When
Carr got hurt, it immediately squashed the Raiders chances of upsetting the
Patriots, already the clear favorite in the weak conference. In addition to Raiders,
the Texans were without a quarterback. By having star players injured for the
post season, fan interest goes down exponentially.
A final benefit to
the league gets by adding in a second bye week: career ending injuries at the
end of the season go down. No one wants to see a player have their career ended
by force, let alone a really bad injury. As a fan, I would much rather see a
player retire because of family, they are just done with the sport, or some
other personal reason, and not because they are forced out. While all end of
season injuries many not be career ending, but they can really hamper a player
until they get forced out or their play drops of a cliff. Look what happened to
Peyton Manning.
Even if harmful
injuries don’t happen at the end of the season, by giving players more rest
during the season, the NFL is not only helping themselves in terms of fan
interest, they are aiding players morally and physically. Football is a very
dangerous sport, and the NFL doesn’t want to be known as an employer who makes
their employees jobs even more dangerous.
