I grew up loving the NFL, breathing it in, consuming every morsel I could get. But with the news trickling out that the league will push for an 18-game season as early as 2027, one thing has become abundantly clear: the NFL hates its fans. Not to mention its players.
Adding an extra bye week was among the first “concessions” discussed to appease players who for obvious reasons, beginning with injury and including general wear and tear on their bodies, don’t want an 18-game season.
And the latest whisper reported last week by Mike Florio was a potential capping of players’ participation at 17 games for non-special teams players. Which just makes real football feel more like fantasy football, sadly. When you head into a Sunday fantasy matchup knowing that your top wide receiver is on a bye that week, you often have to either scramble to find another one on the waiver wire or pray that your preferred backup doesn’t screw it up.
Now we’re considering doing this in real life?
“The NFL has always fundamentally misunderstood why it is such a cash cow,” NFL writer Ben Gretch wrote, per Newsweek.com, “but if their lust for more games leads to random deactivations of fantasy stars on Sunday mornings, they will seriously damage that hobby for casuals, which would be the biggest misstep yet.”
Here’s another wrinkle: The NFL has in recent years embraced gambling. Forget fantasy football, what about the poor guy that places a bet, only to see the outcome – much like with potential replacement refs – fudged up by a star player being unavailable due to the game cap?
Similarly, imagine as a fan paying top dollar to get tickets to a Packers home game, along with paying hundreds of dollars a night for a hotel room, travel, etc., and then finding out that Jordan Love or Micah Parsons or whomever your favorite player is won’t play. What is this, the NBA?
We all know what this – another money grab from greedy NFL owners. More ticket sales, more money in their pockets. More injuries to players? Hey, that’s why there’s a practice squad!
And this doesn’t even address the fact that these changes will extend the season by either forcing it to start earlier or by pushing it back. So, will the Super Bowl be played in March now?
Another mentioned concession is that the NFL would cut the preseason to two games. Which gives coaches less time for real-time player evaluation and robs young players of an extra opportunity to potentially show what they can do for another team if they get cut at the roster deadline. And nixing a preseason game isn’t going to help reduce injuries when most of the key players don’t play much or at all in preseason games.
But as with so many things, the love of money trumps all else. For the NFL, it might even be worse – it’s the love of money without taking great care to protect the product on the field. I don’t see my fandom fading anytime soon (or ever), because I’m far too invested, especially when it comes to the Green Bay Packers. So in that sense, I’m part of the problem. But it becomes clearer and clearer all the time: the NFL is indeed a cash cow, and boy oh boy, is the league milking Elsie hard.
As John Mellencamp said, “Ain’t that America?”