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Quote: Originally Posted by SPTO

16 game season for me. There are plenty of reasons which have all been expressed in this thread but I will reiterate a couple of them. An 18 game season is going to really water down the level of play late in the year. Teams that clinch a playoff spot/win division are going to play out the string for at 4 games and AT LEAST half of said 4 games will be at home. How would you like it if you were a fan of that team and normally you'd see this once a year and shrug your shoulders but now you're going to the ballpark and seeing the team just roll over because they want to protect the players. I'd be pretty PO'ed myself. Another factor in watering down the level of play is this, we've seen an 18 game season in the CFL (which is just absurd they should have a 14 game season at the most but that's another story) for decades and let me tell you it becomes a real grind where the football towards the end of the year gets to be real sloppy and tough to watch though invariably the playoffs are often quite good. I dunno if that would happen in the NFL but either way the last 5-6 games will be a killer to watch especially if you cheer for a mediocre team playing their butts off but making mistakes because they're mentally/physically fatigued. Now the second point is in regards to records. Someone else mentioned this and i'm glad they did because we already have a debate about the relative merits of records today compared to the guys who played all or most of their career in a 14 game season. Are we going to further dilute that by adding 2 more games and then 20 years down the line some QB breaks Peyton Manning's record and we question whether Manning would've had more if he had an extra 2 games to play. It'll lead to an artificial "generational" argument that we often see in baseball and when we talk of football 30-40 years ago compared to today. Both of those generational differences are solid and can be seen for what they are but this one would be completely artificial because really, I don't see how the NFL of 2040 is going to be radically different from the NFL of 2010. The owners are on board with this only because of the money but it's only going to make the upcoming labor negotiations even more difficult then it is.

Quick Counter Points.

1. A team would have to have a 5 game division lead with 4 games left to mail in 4 games. That's extremely unlikely

2. The CFL probably looks watered down and sloppy because they are dealing with a lower caliber player. I don't see the NFL getting so watered down that it is unwatchable. Just can't see it happening

3. Records are meant to be broken. Modern day training, longer seasons, evolution of the game. Records get broken. It's just a part of the sport. Plus, when a guy is chasing a record it actually increases the interest in the sport because no one wants to miss "that" moment.