Freddie Falcon
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Nearly everyone is in agreement the NFL needs to shorten the preseason. And if you think the first four weeks — including the Hall of Fame Game — were bad, just wait until Thursday night.
It is guaranteed to be worse.
Owners, though, aren’t going to just shutter two preseason games and continue with the regular season and postseason as is. There’s too much money at stake for that.
That means an expanded regular season and/or postseason.
“In terms of expanding the length of the season — whether it be with additional playoff games or regular-season games and whether it would be to 17 or 18 — I certainly would be in favor of an expansion, probably initially to 17 games to see how that works, then have 18,’’ Falcons owner Arthur Blank said, via Vaughn McClure of ESPN. “But — and the but is the biggest caveat here — if we do that, we have to make sure that our first priority, which is player safety and health, is being kept in the forefront of that discussion.’’
The NFL Players Association thus far has resisted trading two preseason games for two regular-season games. Or put a better way, the NFL has yet to come up with an offer the NFLPA can’t refuse.
With CBA talks ongoing, the preseason topic likely is one that already is being discussed.