I am going to attempt to justify keeping the standard 16 Regular Season Games + 4 Preseason Games format that the league currently uses. I already addressed this briefly in a previous article, but I feel the need elaborate on it some more. One thing we know for sure though is that the NFL, its team owners and the players union (or association or whatever it is called now) care about one thing and one thing only, MONEY! I do not blame them for being as greedy as they are, but I feel that if they shorten the preseason, even if they lengthen the regular season, the quality of the product consumed by the fans will be diminished. The NFL needs the preseason to sort out which players are capable of playing under the lights and pressure during the regular season, to find out which guys are just scout team superstars and which ones can contribute on Sundays. Since it appears fairly obvious that the NFL is going to have to cut the preseason down by half (4 games down to 2) I have found a way for them to do this and at the same time increase the quality of the product on Sunday's, create more jobs at all levels of the organization, and most importantly (to the league, owners, and players) increase the revenue.
As previously stated, the main reason why the NFL needs the preseason is to see which players can perform in game situations and potentially contribute if called up on Sundays. If you are an NFL player that was not drafted in the top rounds of the NFL draft, the only way that you get to show that you can play in the league is during the preseason. During the regular season, if you are on the 8 man practice squad, and not part of the 53 man active roster you only get a chance to shine running the opposing teams offense and defense during practice while going against 1st and 2nd stringers that typically run half speed in practice, and on game days the practice squad does not even suit up, they spend the games watching in street clothes on the sideline, or if it's an away game they usually watch them at home like you and me. Even if you do make the 53 active man roster you may only have a chance to show what you can do on a few special teams plays during the game, if you are not a starter or part of the regular rotation. Your only true chance to shine may be because someone gets injured. I think that there are a lot of guys that can play in the league, and play well, they just never get a chance to show it because of limited opportunities. As a fan I enjoy the preseason games for 2 reasons: #1 because it's football, and #2 because I like trying to see if I can pick out a player that I might want to keep on tabs for fantasy football or mainly to see if I can spot the next guy that will make an impact in the league. So how does the NFL solve these problems? How do they cut the number of preseason games, improve the quality of the product on Sundays (and Thursdays and Mondays), while increasing revenue and keeping the regular season at 16 games? Here is how....
#1 - They sell their NFL Network Thursday night slate of games to one of the networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, or ESPN). From what I have read the league could easily create an extra $350 million in revenue by doing this. This would not only increase profits, but allow for extra broadcast space for idea #2.
#2 - They purchase the UFL, the struggling football league that for the past couple of years has been trying to be a haven for guys who are either a few years removed from contributing to an NFL team, guys that are not even good enough to make the practice squad, or guys that may have been overlooked. This would essentially be the NFL's version of minor league (I know they have their own free farm system called the NCAA but you cannot "call" players up from college on a need basis). By purchasing this league the NFL could relegate their practice squad or scout team players to the UFL where they would be on 1 of 5 UFL teams (and they can add or subtract as they see fit) and teams can call up the players they sent down there whenever they want to, and put them back down there whenever they want. And if the Dolphins wanted to pull a player that the Cardinals sent down to the minor league than the Dolphins would have to keep them on their active roster the rest of the season, and if the Dolphins place a "tender" on the player than the Dolphins have to give up certain draft picks, cash, etc. The main benefit of this "minor league" to the players would be: speed up the development of players by getting them live reps at full speed, create more jobs for players, and it would keep players in game shape by getting them live action.
The league would broadcast the UFL games on NFL Network so fans like myself could scout players that potentially could help out a team, and coaches would be able to see how the players react in game type situations at full speed. These games would be played during the regular NFL season, and while details still need to be worked out, I imagine a system where a player spends half their time with their respective team and the other half with the minor league team. The minor league teams would basically run simple vanilla offenses and defenses so that we are not giving the minor leaguers to much conflicting information, but the systems would allow them to call audibles and adjust coverages. The ad revenue and stadium revenue would be split equally among the NFL teams, and this would create more jobs for NFL players, referees (almost like training), coaches, stadium personnel, network jobs (NFL Network broadcasting them and ESPN and other sports entities that would report and evaluate it), etc. I do not see a downside to this, and I believe it would be very profitable.
Now I know what you are thinking, "the NFL already tried this with NFL Europe and it failed". This would be nothing like that, this would be American football, in American cities, where we know football is popular. Fans would watch these games, maybe not on as regular a basis as the games that count, but they would always be looking for the next Tony Romo playing on the Florida Tuskers. It would be a fan and family friendly venue that would be much more affordable then NFL games currently are. I mean we already know that the most popular player in an NFL town is the backup QB. Now think of the debate this would cause if a team like the Seahawks are struggling with either Matt Hasselbeck or Charlie Whitehurst at QB, but their 2nd round draft pick Jake Locker is setting the minor league football world on fire! All of a sudden you would have every fan of every team with a poorly performing QB watching the minor league games that Locker is playing in, and writing their teams website and local newspaper, calling into talk radio, shouting at the top of their lungs that "X" team needs to steal Jake Locker right now and replace their current QB. And hypothetically Jake Locker would be exclusive property of the Seahawks for 1-2 years possibly, or even 1/2 of the season, and if another team wanted to pick him up then they would have to give up two 1st round picks as compensation (or something of value to an NFL team). Man the possibilities of this are endless!!
I am going to cut this off right here, I think I will follow up on this at a later date with a more detailed plan of how this could and should work. To be honest the more I think about this, the better I feel that this idea really is. The development of players would be increased 10X, the amount of jobs that would be created at all levels are enormous, the interest and debate this would cause amongst football fans, talk show hosts, newspaper writers, bloggers, tweeters, etc is ENDLESS!! And the reason why the NFL should consider it, is because the additional revenue this would create for all sides is limited only by their creativity. The downside to this? I just thought of it, and now they would have to give me a cut of it.....
watch chicago vs new orleans sweat it out.
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