Double Coverage: Debating a longer season

Discussion in 'Tennessee Titans and NFL Talk' started by NewsGrabber, Apr 1, 2009.

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  1. NewsGrabber

    NewsGrabber Guest

    <em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky and Mike Sando</em> <p>Is more better?</p> <p>NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is confident <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4015357" target="_blank">the answer is yes</a>. At the recent owners' meeting, he talked about expanding the regular season from 16 to 17 or 18 game, while cutting back the preseason, which he acknowledged doesn't meet the league's standards for its product with its fans.</p> <p>Owners could vote on the issue this year, but such a change would then have to be bargained for as part of a new agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association (NFLPA).</p> <table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0" width="200" align="right"> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><img src="http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2009/0226/nfl_u_goodell_200.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em">Matthew Emmons/US Presswire</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em"><strong>Commissioner Roger Goodell is in favor of expanding the NFL's regular season.</strong></font></td> </tr> </table> <p>Would it be the right move? AFC South blogger Paul Kuharsky backs the bigger regular season, while NFC West blogger Mike Sando is against it.</p> <p>They do their best to hash it out in this week's edition of Double Coverage.</p> <p><strong>Kuharsky:</strong> The NFL will never trim the preseason without converting some of it to real games, and the preseason is unquestionably the biggest rip off for ticket buyers in sports. Goodell clearly realizes that fans are fed up with meaningless exhibition games decided by fourth stringers that cost full price and are a mandatory purchase for season-ticket holders. Yes, a lot of things will have to be adjusted to accommodate an 18-game NFL regular season -- pay, the size of rosters, TV deals, etc. But more professional football that counts is a good thing, and taking the schedule further into February, the worst month on the sports calendar, is fine with me. I think it needs to be 18 -- not 17&nbsp;-- games in order to keep balanced home and road schedules. If it's 17 and you talk about neutral sites, we're talking about leaving all these palaces built for football unused for actual games.</p> <p><strong>Sando:</strong> We can all agree there's a problem. Look, I know what it's like to fork over full price for preseason tickets, all while watching a horrible product on the field. That was my fate as a Raiders season-ticket holder years ago. I could barely afford my upper-level seats for the regular-season games and it was maddening to pay for games that didn't count. But I also think the NFL needs to think hard before further diluting its product. We already have too many teams. The league clearly doesn't have enough quarterbacks to make it through the current 256-game schedule. Adding two games per team would add 64 starts for quarterbacks.</p> <p><strong>Kuharsky:</strong> Funny, I never pictured you wearing a silver-and-black dog collar, Mike. As for 64 more quarterback starts, I'm fine with that too. The team that picks <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1428" target="_new">Peyton Manning</a> over <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=1427" target="_new">Ryan Leaf</a> and the team smart enough to have <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=4465" target="_new">Byron Leftwich</a> as its backup instead of <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=8664" target="_new">Ryan Fitzpatrick</a> should reap the benefits of choosing correctly as often as it can. A team like the Bears that constantly fails to address the position effectively should suffer the consequences. If it's a side effect to a longer season that the teams that scout and groom quarterbacks the best have an advantage in a longer season, so be it. It's the most important position in the game. If the resources you have for finding and developing a player or players are insufficient or ineffective, here are a few more games where the people who are good at it get a chance to show you why you should be better at it.</p> <p><strong>Sando:</strong> Quarterback injuries are the real problem here. We can talk about the league putting skirts on quarterbacks and legislating contact out of the game, but quarterbacks will keep getting hurt. It's the nature of the position. Fifty-three quarterbacks started games in 2008. The number was 64 in 2007 and 50 in 2006. The Browns had four starters last season. The Chiefs, Lions and Seahawks each had three.</p> <table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0" width="200" align="right"> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><img src="http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0721/pg2_a_sorgi_200.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em">AP Photo/Michael Conroy</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em"><strong>An expanded regular season schedule would force teams to groom a backup QB, like the Colts' Jim Sorgi, in case injuries occur.</strong></font></td> </tr> </table> <p>The more games the NFL adds, the harder time quarterbacks will have staying healthy. Don't know about you, Paul, but I'd rather watch the third-stringer play in August than January. Think about it. If you're a Colts fan, would you rather endure a couple of meaningless games in August or would you rather endure <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=5718" target="_new">Jim Sorgi</a> starting a playoff game after Manning's body finally gives out in Week 19?</p> <p>I don't think people understand what a 16-game schedule does to these players' bodies. The NFLPA understands, and that's why I think the 18-game schedule could be a tough sell.</p> <p>Now that we've settled that issue, what about the record books? The jump from 14 to 16 games three decades ago already diminished the 1,000-yard season. If the league goes to 18 games, players would have to average only 55.6 yards per game to reach 1,000 yards. I realize the AFC South had only two 1,000-yard receivers last season -- the Cardinals had three, by the way -- but that seems ridiculous.</p> <p><strong>Kuharsky:</strong> A tough sell until players negotiate themselves two or three more in-season paychecks. And you want more quarterback development? There it is -- teams better get or groom themselves a quality backup because he will play. Wear and tear is definitely the biggest issue, and to make this schedule boost happen the league will have to give in on pay as well as on issues of jobs, service time connected to pensions and benefits. I would be in favor of a second bye week as well, which would help with recovery times and work just fine if the regular season started earlier because of a shortened preseason and ended later with a Valentine's Day Super Bowl.</p> <p>I completely disagree with the record-book argument as a factor. A 1,000-yard rushing season hasn't meant much for a running back since the league went from 14- to 16-game regular seasons in 1978. A recalibration there is long overdue already. Fans and media can handle it if the benchmarks don't come in nice round numbers. That's hardly a reason not to play more.</p> <p>This isn't baseball, where we know the numbers automatically, where&nbsp;56 and 2,632 evoke images of&nbsp;Joe DiMaggio and Cal Ripken. What's the all-time rushing mark? I admit I've got to run to <a href="/profile/Posted%20by%20ESPN.com%27s%20Paul%20Kuharsky%20and%20ESPN.com%27s%20Mike%20Sando" target="_blank">pro-football-reference.com</a> to get Emmitt Smith's 18,355 yards. In 2008, <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=2580" target="_new">Drew Brees</a> was in range of Dan Marino's season record for passing yardage (5,084), but it's not like a high percentage of fans or media know Marino's mark by heart. When Brees or someone else breaks it with two extra games, we'll understand the framework of it.</p> <table border="0" cellspacing="4" cellpadding="0" width="200" align="right"> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td><img src="http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/1118/nfl_u_mitchell_200.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em">Luc Leclerc/US Presswire</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> <td align="left"><font size="1" style="line-height: 1.2em"><strong>Brady Quinn (10) was one of four Browns quarterbacks to start a game in 2008.</strong></font></td> </tr> </table> <p>There is nothing that can happen in an 18-game season that I can't count on you to put in context, and a spreadsheet, to help me comprehend. You and I and all our colleagues can evaluate production in an 18-game season in the context of league history and the old 16-game paradigm.</p> <p><strong>Sando:</strong> Any discussion of extending the season should indeed pull baseball and basketball into the fold. Both sports play more games than most busy people are willing to follow. The NFL enjoys a tremendous advantage by playing fewer games than those other sports.</p> <p>If not for the physical demands of football, short-sighted owners would trade the long-term good of the game for profits associated with seasons running 82 or 162 games. Jumping to 18 games isn't going to kill the NFL, but it's certainly going to dilute the regular season while putting more players at risk for injuries. Is that progress?</p> <p><strong>Kuharsky:</strong> It is to me if the primary argument against it is that it dilutes the regular season.</p> <p>Eighteen games is still a reasonably small season, every game is still going to have a big bearing on the final standings and, again, we're talking about trimming half the pitiful preseason sham. I don't feel like it will put the NFL in the neighborhood of baseball, basketball or hockey in terms of over-saturating the sports landscape. A lot of taxpayer money went into building these stadiums. Let's put them to meaningful use more often.</p> <p>ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd always talks about the NFL's willingness to evolve. I think an expanded regular season qualifies as just that.</p>

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