Interesting concept under consideration.........
NFL players are hopeful of securing further concessions from the league and owners before taking a ratification vote proposed collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that includes a 17-game season, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations.
It’s not clear whether the NFLPA has resumed negotiations with the league and owners, or what additional concessions the union will seek to make a 17-game season more palatable to players.
The new CBA would last for 10 years and would give the players about 48.3 percent of league revenue under the salary cap system. The league and owners would have the option to extend the regular season from 16 to 17 games per team beginning at some point during the CBA, probably tied to the onset of new network TV deals. The owners believe the longer regular season would be highly attractive to the networks and would boost the league’s revenue considerably.
The preseason would be reduced in conjunction with the lengthening of the regular season, and the NFL playoff field could be expanded from 12 to 14 teams beginning at some point during the CBA.
Current season has 3-4 pre-season games (over a month) followed by 16 regular-season games over 17 weeks (each team gets a bye week).
The pre-season games are pretty much worthless to watch, so I'm all for eliminating one of those in favor of a game that has meaning.
I would think they'd have the regular season start a week earlier rather than pushing the Super Bowl back a week.
And expanding the playoffs from 12 to 14 teams....... that's a cool idea too. I'd support that!
And I know they are talking about the games played internationally (Mexico, England, etc.) as well. Will each team be guaranteed 1? Would some teams have 2?
Will be interesting to see how much of this comes into reality.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt