Currently the NFL season is only 16 games, but that might not be permanent. There’s been talks of expanding the season for awhile now and those talks seem to have reached NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell based on Goodell’s statements last week. “I’m not sure, talking with coaches, that four preseason games is necessary anymore to get ready for a season to evaluate players, develop players,” Goodell said in Batavia at Jim Kelly’s charity golf tournament.
“There are other ways of doing that, and we’ve had a lot of discussions about that,” Goodell said. Apparently, ‘other ways’ includes adding two more regular season games while cutting a couple of the preseason games. It’s a strange idea, as teams are less likely even with the longer season to give playing time to younger and backup players if the games count for something – unlike preseason games – but that hasn’t kept the idea from being brought up.
New York Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie, however, disagrees with the proposal for the reason that the season is already long enough and tough enough on the bodies of the players as it is.
“It’s just more opportunity to get hurt. The game is physical enough. It’s hard enough. The argument is there’s more money to be had collectively to play 18 games, but health and safety is paramount to us. Always has been. And we think the NFL is going pretty well right now, so I don’t see why adding two more games would be necessary,” DeOssie said.
DeOssie is notably on the executive committee of the NFLPA, which mean that his opinion carries more weight than the average player on a matter such as this. It looks unlikely that the NFLPA as a whole would agree to something like this – right now, at least. The talk has been going on for awhile and it will continue to go on, as will complaining about the preseason.
One can hope, however, that if the season is extended, the Giants are in a better state than they were last season. It wouldn’t be fun, after all, to have to sit through an extra two games of the 2018 season.