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May 23, 2016How about a Cleveland Browns home game on February 2 that involves a 3-12 record and minus-10 degrees windchill? Such games could become commonplace under a new proposed schedule from Sport Illustrated’s Melissa Jacob. She believes the NFL offseason is too long and that the league is leaving a financial windfall on the table, so she proposes the NFL moves to a 22-week schedule though keeping the current 16 game regular season total. Under this format, the regular season would expand from the same traditional early September starting point through early February for the regular season, which would push the NFL postseason to culminate in early March just before the opening of free agency.
Jacobs is quick to point out a couple benefits of her proposed schedule. The NFL can reap a financial windfall due to having an additional weekends of games. Currently, there are 17 regular season NFL weekends. Expanding to 21 regular season weekends could potentially net the NFL billions of dollars as professional football is a unique sport in which the ratings are not as strictly dependent on the local team playing as it is for other leagues such as MLB. The last week would be a Pro Bowl skills competition added on Christmas weekend in a warm locale. Hawaii was not enticing enough in the past, but Jacobs believes that would change with her plan.
This new NFL also provides a solution to the joke that is the Pro Bowl. Make it a skills competition over the Christmas break. Go somewhere warm. The NFL makes a donation to the charity of choice for each skills winner. Bet those nagging injuries and big name dropouts would be a thing of the past.
She mentions player’s health being important, and, with five bye weeks instead of the traditional one, players would be allowed more time between games to recover and heal from the various injuries they procur during the season. She doesn’t mention it, but an intelligent scheduler could also do away with the quick turnaround time between a Sunday and Thursday game by always scheduling bye weeks ahead of the Thursday matchup. Players who sustain more serious injuries early in the season also might be able to rehabilitate in time to make it back onto the field later in the year.
There is nary a mention rebuking any of the potential consequences of her plan. NFL teams would have to figure out the logistics of having free agency open the week after the Super Bowl completes not to mention having the traditional time of the calendar year for developing a plan for the draft being consumed with games. Coaching would become even more intensely scrutinized (and potentially important) with more down time between games.
But yhe biggest obstacle not mentioned is the weather in many cities outdoor stadiums in January and February. The NFL would be requiring perennial playoff teams such as Green Bay to be playing on the frozen tundra throughout January and February. And Cleveland Browns seasons have been difficult enough without having the annual last game beatdown — that has featured such luminaries as starting quarterback Thaddeus Lewis — happen in sub-zero temperatures with the wind providing an icy chill in late January.
But hey, Jacobs states “Finally, from a calendar perspective this gives us something to do in February other than be cold and bored.” Well certainly wouldn’t be bored.
35 Comments
Unless you require every city in the north to build a dome, I’m not sure how this is feasible. Also, on a personal level, I simply don’t want a 22 game season. 16 is on the cusp of perfect and too many. Part of what makes football great is the condensed season.
Still 16 games, 22 weeks
I enjoy about 1 completely miserable home game per year.
Referring to the weather of course… we all know the Browns are good for at least 6 miserable home games of their own.
Ah. Well, that is more tolerable. I didn’t read closely enough. I thought she was adding preseason games into the regular season fold. Still, a 6 month season seems way too long.
22 isn’t long enough. Under MY plan, the season would be 68 weeks long, with each successive season overlapping the prior (ongoing) season. Teams will have the opportunity to employ their draft picks immediately, thereby helping the team improve as the successive season launches whilst simultaneously helping teams in their final playoff push in the current (ongoing season). The real beauty lies within the ability of free agents to simultaneously play for both the team that they departed, in the current (ongoing) season, whilst embarking on their new venture with their signing team in the successive season. Not to mention, two Super Bowls a year (depending on how the calendar rolls out)! Revenues upon revenues upon revenues!!
But when is the Pro Bowl?
Yes.
Third week after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup in even years and NBA Finals in odd years?
February 30?
Half-time entertainment for the annual Ohio State – Michigan game?
sorry, but nothing can replace the joy that is crying wolverine fans during half-time of a game already lost.
Only in the eleventeenth month.
All of the above. It’s about revenues and keeping the NFL as ubiquitous as the CVS on every corner!
Garry_Owen, this is the greatest post of all time. That is all.
I think Milo Minderbinder from Catch-22 now works for the NFL. But instead of “What’s good for M&M Enterprises is good for the country,” it’s, “What’s good for the NFL is good for the NFL.”
Actually, I’d find this far more interesting than a 22 week schedule.
Let’s move it to the 13th month…
https://frinkiac.com/gif/S07E06/589972/596812.gif?b64lines=TG91c3kgU21hcmNoIHdlYXRoZXIK
I love that wonderful book.
I hate to intimate an idea as perfect as this could be improved upon, but you could potentially amend the proposal to include city sharing, take care of the weather issue and revenues galore! The Green Vegas Packers! Clevelamento Browns. Pittsquerque Steelers. $300-500M in quasi-relo, ahem… sharing rights, double the stadium naming rights revenue, what could go wrong?
I second the motion.
It’s a big tent. I welcome all ideas for making this better. And I mean that; ALL ideas are welcome. None are excluded. Let’s do this thing.
And let’s not stop at cities. Let’s “open border” this mutha. You want games in London and Beijing? Those foreigners have money, too, so, yeah, done. 10 games each.
Now you are onto something. Bi-lingual adds two more sets of uniforms to home, away, cold weather, warm weather, vintage and throwback. Jersey sales through the roof!
To save costs on re-prints, you could offer jerseys in American and English.
Los Browns. Thank the NBA (éne-bé-a) for that one.
No, it would be “Los Marrones”
Oh no!!! That means Haslam will be forced to hire Doug Marrone?
Let me tell ya, the Queen’s English should not be mistaken for the stuff we speak in merika
I suggest just offset the college and pro season start dates, so our football dead season is reduced from 6 months to 3.
RGB, I’m surprised you are not picking up on the whole robotics angle here. I mean, pretty soon these players are going to want fully guaranteed contracts. Can’t have that.
Robotics put it completely in the hands of the analytic geeks.
Team Snark does not support Techmo Bowl-izing of good old fashioned Murican blood and guts.
I am reminded of such daily (English company).
So you would be familiar with the following translations:
Easy:
Field = Pitch
Brilliant = Touchdown
Tosser = Ref
Wanker = Commentator
Medium:
Tits up = Incomplete
Cock up = Interception
Advanced:
Bloody Hell = Blocked Kick
I do believe he has found his way over the imaginary horizontal boundary on the pitch = Offsides
Well Done! = My mother coulda guessed that you wanker.
Yes, we could converse saying “He went cock up, then back and face just as it caught square the back four” without needing to consult Before You Comment.
Touche!
http://www.clevescene.com/images/blogimages/2009/09/21/1253554177-picture_164.png
I might have used 90% of my futbol knowledge in that one sentence though I did pick up the rules to cricket on my last trip across the pond.
It took me three months of watching on TV to figure out they switched sides on each over. Made a lot of sense after that.
Xbox’s and algo’s for everyone! Forget VR, play the real thing, real time.
The whole scoring system threw me for a loop. Watching IPL w/o sound on a bar TV probably didn’t help matters.