18 games? Goodell needs to keep the NFL the way it is

When news first broke this past week that the NFL was considering an 18-game season, sheer joy pumped into my veins.

Because think about it, this scenario would provide us with more regular season football.

It would do this while also providing us with less preseason football.

If that’s not the ultimate stroke of genius, then I don’t know what is.

But as I really got away from the selfish side of things and looked deeper, I figured out that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s latest proposed plan isn’t as good as it looks on the surface, and in fact, it might ruin the league as we know it today.

The first way it could ruin this league is by upsetting the players. They don’t want this – not at all. And anyone who keeps a close eye on union relations knows that things are heading toward a 2011 lockout season right now as it is.

So the last thing Goodell needs to do is push the guys over the edge. More football is good, but I’d take less football over no football at all, and I do not think the players would ever agree to play 18 games – not without an accelerated pay scale to compensate for the two extra games.

Because think about it, would you be willing to do 12 percent more work at your job, while getting the same amount of pay?

If you’re like most Americans, the answer to that would be no. And it’s the same with these NFL guys. For them to play that 17th and 18th game, we’ll have to see $10 million contracts become $12 million contracts, and $1 million contracts to become $1.5 million contracts.

Strikes kill the relationship between the game and fans, and it’s ultimately the reason why baseball is no longer our true pastime. I don’t want to see the NFL go down the same road.

The second reason why this wouldn’t work is probably the most obvious reason – injuries.

Being in the NFL is not easy. Some players get nicked up and then play through it until they cannot anymore. Others get smacked hard enough the first time, and are out for the season or even for their careers.

Take a peek at the New Orleans Saints starting lineup right now, compared to the lineup they had on opening day.

Right now, there’s no Reggie Bush, Pierre Thomas and Tracy Porter.

By Week 16 or 17, those players will be back (if they don’t get injured again), but a litany of other players will succumb to battle scars and will be out of the lineup.

Today’s NFL isn’t about who is the best team, because teams are only at full strength for one week – the first week.

It’s about who is the strongest, toughest and ultimately the healthiest team when February rolls around.

To compensate for more players being injured, teams would have to up the number of players allowed on active rosters, which again would ultimately drive salary costs upwards for a team.

I thought this longer season was designed to make more money for the league?

Well, it seems to me that everything is pointing right now toward it costing the league more money, too.

And the final reason why the 18-game season is dangerous for the NFL is because of what it could do to a player’s legacy.

The NFL is a “generational,” league.

The 1980s belonged to the San Francisco 49ers.

The 1990s belonged to the Dallas Cowboys.

And the 2000s belonged to the New England Patriots.

That’s because these teams all had steady cores of returnees who spent nearly the entire decade with the team.

Doing that allowed fans to grow closer to their teams because they knew the roster almost inside and out.

If this rule goes into place, who knows what will happen to the camaraderie year-to-year of teams, because careers will be shorter and players will be out to get the most money they can early in their careers, because there might not be a next year in their career.

So trust me, I love football as much as anyone. I spend close to my entire weekend bunkered in front of a television to watch these warriors do battle on the gridiron.

And while having a longer season would be nice in a dream world, this is reality and the parts just don’t fit to make it work.

And it is this writer’s opinion that even trying it at all would potentially ruin the game as we know it.

And I’m not willing to see that happen. The NFL is the best game in the world. There’s no reason to change it.