Keep the NFL Season the Way It Is

The National Football League might extend its regular season from 16 games to 17 or even 18. Is that a good thing for fans?

I doubt it. Yes, I've heard commissioner Roger Goodell's argument -- that teams are already playing a 20-game schedule, counting the preseason, and that all he wants to do is make a couple more of those games competitive by making them count. "Is the preseason really the high quality we expect from NFL programming?" he asks in The Wall Street Journal. "I don't think it is."

But there's a great reason the quality of preseason games is so low: Coaches are so terrified of injury, they refuse to play their starters a snap longer than is necessary to get them ready for opening day. If anything, the current off-season is too short already -- lots of players show up still nursing wounds from January. (And spending the summer in rehab rather than practicing and conditioning can lead to a rash of early season injuries like the one we're seeing right now.) A longer season will mean more banged-up players and more teams going into the playoffs without their stars -- hardly something the broadcasters or advertisers want. Moreover, it may just mean more regular-season games that look like preseason games, as coaches increasingly bench their top starters for meaningless contests -- something a diluted schedule will allow them to do that much more often.

But even setting injuries aside, there are good reasons to oppose a longer schedule. Why do we always hear that football is the most popular professional sport in the U.S.? Sure, parity has something to do with it, but I'm convinced the relatively manageable season (from a fan's standpoint) is a factor, too. When there are only 16 games, each is a must-see event. Back where I come from, game day is such a big deal, churches schedule their Sunday services around it. You don't see that with baseball or basketball.

Of course 18 games is still a lot closer to 16 games than it is to 82 or 162. Still, there's something about the limited nature of the football season that makes it feel special. I'm sure fans will eventually get used to watching games before Labor Day, or to waiting until after Valentine's Day for the Super Bowl. But why mess with a winning formula?

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