Longer NFL Season Coming?

If the NFL season just isn't long enough to satisfy your football cravings, relief may be on its way in the not-too-distant future. It seems the National Football League is more open than ever to expanding to a 17- or 18-game format, and there are some who seem to actually be pushing for it to happen.

Mike Reiss of the Boston Globe says a change could be coming quicker than many are anticipating, and quotes New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft as saying, "The bottom line is that I think you'll see us going to 17 or 18 regular-season games in the future."

Driving the discussion is an uncertain labor forecast with players, who continually want a bigger piece of the pie while owners try to figure out a way to keep more of the profits in their pockets. Lengthening the schedule means increased revenue which would ultimately benefit both sides... and could help make the next round of Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations a little more amicable.

Expanding the regular season, though, doesn't necessarily mean the preseason will be shortened to accommodate it. But it's certainly a possibility. In my opinion, a drop from four to three practice games would make little difference since most teams use their starters very sparsely in their final tune-up. I'm not sure, however, that the NFL would want to expand the regular season on the front end, which would put the season opener on or before Labor Day weekend. Instead, I'd look for them to tack a week or two onto the end of the season and push the Super Bowl back into the middle of February.

For what it's worth, Reiss quotes NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell as saying that owners "find a longer season to be attractive" and that "we've made accommodations with our Super Bowl dates that we can move them later in the year."

But what will the players think of the additional games and the longer season?

Obviously, they'll want to be paid more, which makes sense. More games mean more revenue, but also more wear and tear on the body.

The owners, however, may not be so quick to see it that way.