2019 NFL off-season thread

It should be noted that as late as the late '80s, teams would have close to 100 guys in camp with the bottom 25 or so pretty much human blocking sleds and tackling dummies for the much greater amount of full contact practice. Add two regular season games with the 1000 times greater intensity than preseason and the current practice regimen and there will be a spectacularly horrid number of injuries. If a Mahomes or Gurley or Rodgers gets hurt before Labor Day, the 18 game schedule will lose its appeal. Also, I don't see the union going for it unless, you know, everybody got a 12.5 percent pay raise.

 

Back then, though, the NFL was a part-time gig for many players. They needed six preseason games to get into shape. Now, not so much with year-round conditioning, minicamps, OTAs, etc.

 

The only thing that matters is 18/2 makes more $$$ than 16/4

 

Which is why it will happen as long as the players get their cut. The training camps I talked about are as long gone as the single wing.

 

I never realized it, but if they just make two of the exhibitions league games, the season ticket price should remain the same, yes?

 

I like the idea on the surface.

But the owners will NEVER go for it. Not as long as season-ticket packages are 10 games ... the eight regular-season games and two exhibition games.

They scoop in big money on those games. They don't want to ship those games out to any small venue that will hamper ticket sales.

 

Wanna bet?

 

Yup. Owner soak season-ticket holders for 10 games.

A big reason so many of those exhibition games hit StubHub, etc. ...

 

God, those six-exhibition preseasons were insane. Some teams would play their starters; others would pull bums off of skid row to take reps.

As I recall (and I don't feel like checking), most teams would work the vets more and more into the games in the last exhibition or two -- in contrast to now, when few starters even set foot on the field in the last exhibition game.

As I recall also, nobody cared much (or at all) about winning the first couple weeks, but in preseason weeks 5-6 teams were usually trying to win. Coaches didn't want to go into the season off a string of losses.

 

That’s a good point.

I still like 18/2 with expanded rosters.

 

16 games, 18 weeks, SB on Presidents' Day weekend

 

I love the idea of not working the day after a SB.