NFL preps for possible 8-game season

[TxDavid]

According to FOX Sports:

Originally Posted by FOX Sports

Despite recent developments in the labor battle that are seen as positive by some, the NFL is planning for a regular season as short as eight games, the Sports Business Journal reported Monday.

The reported plan essentially means that in order to have a 2011 season a new collective bargaining agreement would need to be reached no later than early November.

Under the reported plan, the eight-game season would start in late November and culminate with the Super Bowl in Indianapolis Feb. 12. The NFL has previously cleared the way for the Super Bowl to be played as late as Feb. 12.

The league is looking to give teams five weeks before the season to sign free agents, hold training camps, and possibly play preseason games.

According to NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk, the NFL has said it needs at minimum three weeks between a deal and the start of the season, making early November the latest possible date for a labor agreement.

Full Article here

[eriadoc]

I love how all these articles have given up any pretense of writing like the NFL is a discrete entity from the owners. At one point, the NFL was the business, the owners were the franchises, and the players were the employed. Now, "the NFL" just means owners and the business entity all in one. Isn't Goodell supposed to be trying to bring the owners and players together?

[CloakNNNdagger]

If the NFL does this, can you imagine what this will do to a team's schedule? Important games will never be played. With less games, difficulty of schedule will not have enough games to half way balance out inequities. Stats will be an asterisk. Sales of crutches will go through the roof. Fans will be treated to an inferior product while their wallets are emptied as though the NFL didn't skip a beat.

But, don't get too discouraged, there will be new free memorable offerings the NFL will send to each and every fan, accompanied by a letter to show their appreciation.

[IDEXAN]

If the league wins this current appeal (which is expected since 2 of the 3 St Louis judges will probably side with the NFL), doesn't that mean the legal battle is basically over and the players have no "realistic" alternative but to sit down with the league and negotiate ?

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by eriadoc

I love how all these articles have given up any pretense of writing like the NFL is a discrete entity from the owners. At one point, the NFL was the business, the owners were the franchises, and the players were the employed. Now, "the NFL" just means owners and the business entity all in one. Isn't Goodell supposed to be trying to bring the owners and players together?

"The NFL" is making me sick. I really hope I'm not driven away from pro football like I was baseball and basketball. It would take a lot, but it can happen. I was a pretty big basketball fan, and gave it up. Haven't watched in years. I can do the same for football if pressed.

"The NFL" doesn't seem to care and I'm not sure why I do either.

[El Tejano]

If they wanted to make that 8 game schedule a good one it'd have to look something like this:

wk 1 Division Game
wk 2 Division Game
wk 3 Division Game
wk 4 NFC game
wk 5 2nd Division Game
wk 6 2nd Division Game
wk 7 2nd Division Game
wk 8 AFC game

[TimeKiller]

Wow. I call BS on that. I'd rather watch nothing than half a season.

B. S.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Thorn

"The NFL" is making me sick. I really hope I'm not driven away from pro football like I was baseball and basketball. It would take a lot, but it can happen. I was a pretty big basketball fan, and gave it up. Haven't watched in years. I can do the same for football if pressed.

"The NFL" doesn't seem to care and I'm not sure why I do either.

yep, me too. The last sport that I regularly watch is the NFL, and they could quickly become the last sport that I regularly watched with all the crap that both sides are perpetuating here.

I have no interest in an 8 game schedule, and I can't see how any football fan would be satisfied or interested in such a weak-assed product.

[Hottoddie]

Originally Posted by Thorn

"The NFL" is making me sick. I really hope I'm not driven away from pro football like I was baseball and basketball. It would take a lot, but it can happen. I was a pretty big basketball fan, and gave it up. Haven't watched in years. I can do the same for football if pressed.

"The NFL" doesn't seem to care and I'm not sure why I do either.

I agree to a certain extent. Pro sports in general take the fans for granted as if we were nothing but a bunch of cattle headed to the slaughter house. The politicians & lawmakers are the same way. I suppose it's all our fault because we let them get away with it.

Like you, I love NFL football & don't want to give it up. But, at some point the fans have to stand up & let these people know that without us, this game would just dry up & blow away.

If the NFL goes through with this 8 game schedule, I promise myself & anyone reading this post that I will not watch/attend a single NFL game this year & that includes the playoffs & Superbowl. If everyone could find the strength to do the same, that would surely get the NFL's attention as well as anyone else that takes the people for granted.

Having said all this, I'll go back to being a full time fan next year.

[Rey]

An 8 game season would suck so bad.

I would really have to think about whether or not I was going to watch it or not.

[gary]

Let's have one just ****s and giggles. 1-7, 3-5, 4-4, 0-8, 2-6, What is going to be?

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by gary

Let's have one just ****s and giggles. 1-7, 3-5, 4-4, 0-8, 2-6, What is going to be?

Pass.

How bout they just cancel the season, just for ****s and giggles. I don't want to have anything to do with any of this half ass crap.

[gary]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Pass.

How bout they just cancel the season, just for ****s and giggles. I don't want to have anything to do with any of this half ass crap.

I think it would be kind of fun.

[TxDavid]

What do you think the chances are that they would re-write the schedule. 6 games would be divisional + 2 non-division games?

[TexanSam]

Why don't they just extend the season into late February or March? Maybe not all the way to 16 because you have to worry about the 2012 season as well, but maybe up it to a 12 game season at least.

[Stemp]

Originally Posted by TexanSam

Why don't they just extend the season into late February or March? Maybe not all the way to 16 because you have to worry about the 2012 season as well, but maybe up it to a 12 game season at least.

They have contracts that say they have to play the super bowl by a certain date.

[GP]

I say this was done as a way to feel out the fan's response to such an idea.

They have people monitoring message boards and sports media personnel.

I guarantee you a good 95% of each message board fan base--the 32 team message board realms out there in America--have people simultaneously saying exactly what all of us are saying here: An 8-game season is BOGUS.

Look at the timing of this announcement. It comes just a day before we have Mort (ESPN) reporting that his tea leaves are still saying the deal gets done by end of June, maybe first week of July at the latest. So the owners and the NFL brass put out a feeler, in the form of this so-called "Potential for an 8-game season announcement," just to see if fans are somewhat intrigued by it and possibly OK with it if it means getting some football.

They're going to see that it's not flying with fans, and they're going to strike that one off their checklist of things to test out. At this stage, the owners are trying to judge what might work and what will not work. It serves them to test the waters and see if they can hold out longer or if they need to get this done in time for a full reg season. I bet they get a loud and clear response.

That's my theory, at least. No fan in his right mind wants an asterisk by the 2011 season--The stats, the issue with seasonal records, and the stain it puts upon the Super Bowl "champions" of 2011. Neither does the NFL want an 8-game season, since it would mean the asterisk would provide decades upon decades of media attention (It'd get replayed and re-discussed for decades afterward, maybe even forever!). They would never escape it. To me, it's a Public Relations nightmare that fades but never goes away completely.

[badboy]

5 weeks? Give them two weeks for camp & sign free agents. Either the player signs with you or no. No pre-season games. Play ball. Now we have an 11 game season.

[Honoring Earl 34]

I went on vacation and had no internet , cable tv , newspaper , nothing . What did I learn ? I don't really need any of it and givin half a chance I'll find something else to do . If they're dumb enough to screw themselves , I'll do something else .

[gtexan02]

One game season.