Will Fans Ever Get Tired of Football? Expanded NFL Season and Playoffs Are a Test
It’s remarkable that just a few years ago, amid the league’s ratings slump and the rise of American sports-political tumult, we were talking about football fatigue. Perhaps the lay fan was exhausted by the idea of a Sunday marathon only to be followed by a late-night Monday football game and chased by a punchless Thursday matchup featuring a pair of teams dreading the physical toll on their already achy bones.
And now, upon the players ratifying the CBA in a narrow “Yes” vote last night, we have been gifted the very thing we seemed to be saying we didn’t want—or at the least were not sure about. Coming this season: An additional playoff game. Coming soon after that, depending on when the league wants to activate its slot machine lever, a 17th regular season game.
It’s been well established over the last few weeks how the players feel about it. The ones you’ve heard of are largely of the mindset that they’re not receiving enough in return for yet another punishing afternoon of football. And while the expanded playoff field would likely mean a better chance at nabbing a playoff bonus, it also evaporates a bye week for one team in each conference. The players you have not heard as much about would like another game check, a higher minimum salary and more opportunities to see the field, thus earning them a chance to come back the following year.
It’s been well established how the intense observer feels about it. From my perspective (and this is admittedly, painfully separate from the very real concerns I have over player health and safety), another game adds to the potential drama. Another playoff spot potentially rewards a team that has suffered a catastrophic injury during the season and finally turned their season around (or a coach who changed streams schematically and found success, or a good team staving off a random free fall). A reduction in bye weeks means enhanced gamesmanship down the stretch.
But the question the NFL and its loving stable of network partners have yet to answer for themselves is how the rest of you will feel about it. Could you get tired of football again? How much is too much?
The good thing about the new collective bargaining agreement is that it put parameters in place. There is a hard limit on the expansion despite everyone’s desire to squeeze this product for every last dime. We will not end up like baseball, hurdling mercilessly into the meaningless by season’s end. It is only one more week during the season. A few more hours on the opening of playoff weekend. But we will be tested.
It’s the biggest question outside of the logistics of a 17-game schedule. Will international play and neutral site games become more commonplace? Who gets rewarded with additional home games? There are a horde of thorny issues to pluck through in order to prevent some fans from increasing their paranoia about the league being out to get their team for one reason or another.
However, one cannot forget the elemental issues as well. Before the league was re-injected with a cadre of transcendent stars and creative playmakers, before the offensive revolution and the defensive response, before Philly Special and 54-51, there may have been some of you getting tired of the football. That could always happen again.
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