One of the most exciting moments of my life was when I attended my first Cowboys game. I was 8 years old and I can still remember the roar of the crowd in Texas Stadium; the silver and blue sea rising and falling at the whim of superheroes down below still brings a smile to my face.
Recently the NFL has toyed with the idea of extending the football season from 16 games to 20 games. The 8 year old fan in me would love this extension; however, it seems the NFL is merely seeking to add revenue with little consideration of its fans or its labor.
This season extension adds little value to the fans and is detrimental to the players. Already there exists a huge problem with meaningless games at the end of the season as teams start to bench players to avoid risking injury and a season extension would add to this problem. No fan wants to watch Peyton Manning's back up. Furthermore, already strained labor talks between the Player's Association and the NFL could be brought to a boiling point when the NFL must renegotiate contracts as as a result of increased risk of injury to players. This proposition could be the spark plug for every fan's worst nightmare-an NFL lockout in 2o11.
Nobody benefits from an extended season except the NFL. An extension would generate additional revenues from already existing network television contracts. Nevertheless, the products (the players) on the field are at higher risk of injury, the additional games bring little value to fans, and an entire season could be lost in 2011 as a result of this tension. Perhaps the NFL should not try to extend how many games there are if that is not the problem. Better relations with the Player's Association to bring the best games with the best talent to fans should be their focus, not short term increases in revenue from television contracts.
For more information visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032303136.html
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