17 is the new 16
The NFL has officially announced 2021 will be a 17 game regular season. How do you feel about it? I love it.
I am usually a “less is more” Guy. Baseball Season? Cut it in half. Basketball and Hocket? Knock off 1/3 of that shit. Six plus of anything every other night will get boring and it does. The NBA playoffs? Jesus. Wake me up in June. When it comes to the NFL, 16 games and 6 play off teams just seemed too right to mess with it.
Howevah! I thought the 7 team playoff provided some really great football. #2 seed Bills vs. #7 seed Colts could have been the most exciting game of the playoffs. With out the extra playoff team we don’t get a Cleveland vs Steelers match up first week of the playoffs. I anticipated it creating more urgency for good teams at the end of the year with only one bye week at stake, which it did mostly, but the fight for the 7th seed at least in the AFC was just as exciting. The Colts were good. They deserved a shot in the playoffs. If Phillip Rivers wasn’t the most losing clutch time QB in NFL history you probably have an awesome upset there.
64 Career losses of 7 points or less. *NFL Record. By a lot.
Which brings me to 17 games. Lets get one thing out of the way. “Player safety” is the biggest smoke shield crock of shit since Rafael Palmeiro got super mad at the Supreme Court of the United States.
The league, nor do the players, give a shit about player safety. Also, how much worse is it really. Do these guys even hit in practice anymore? Plus, the players never asked for player safety. They asked the NFL to acknowledge is was a terribly violent game where they risk getting their brains bashed in and just want some help or insurance after their playing days instead of having to lock yourself in a hotel room for 3 days deciding they can’t take it anymore or consciously shooting themselves in the chest with a shot gun so someone could figure out why JR. Seau’s mind was so fucked up. So ya, save the player safety bullshit.
In terms of the product though, I don’t think this will diminish it any more than it has been. It just means the rich get richer. We saw the new TV deal the NFL signed nearly doubling their media revenue to $10 Billion with a B. You know the negotiations involved an extra week of programing.
A couple important notes here. They are taking away a pre season game. Boo ya. The League starts the same weekend after Labor Day and just pushes the Super Bowl back a week into February. Do you know what else you have to look forward to in the middle of February? Me either.
Here’s where I give the NFL credit. The extra week in the schedule will now be filled with an inter conference game matching you up with a team of the same division standing. So this year the Pats get Dallas. Big deal, but in years past we would have gotten to see more of the Brady vs. Rodgers or Brady vs. The Sea Hawks that frankly we were robbed of. This wrinkle should make for a ton of great matchups that you normally would have to wait every 4 years to hope everyone is healthy and playing well to see.
If there was something that make me vote against the move it’s me saying the Patriots are going 6 - 10 at best with Cam and some douche (Billy Trashcan) responding with “Well actually it’s 6- 11 now”. Then he receives an atomic wedgy, I question my behavior for weeks, wondering if I should see someone about my anger until I drink away feelings.