....and the NFL wants 18 Games???

[SidSmythe]

So the NFL wants 18 games???
They claim to be worried about players safety, well this won't help!!

[feltdizz]

So the NFL wants 18 games???
They claim to be worried about players safety, well this won't help!!

actually it will help. These hits are being used to implement rules that will "appear" to make it safer to go to 18 games.

Again... these hits are happening in week 6... what will 2 more games in January change in October?

I think the league and networks are playing the fans with the amount of pub this is getting. For years guys have been getting de cleated and the networks celebrated it. Now they are outraged a year before the 18 game proposal?

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

So the NFL wants 18 games???
They claim to be worried about players safety, well this won't help!!

Using that logic they should shorten the season to 5 games so that nobody would be injured on week 6.

How many players are injured each year in TC and the pre season? Should that also be eliminated? Does the reduction of pre season games from 4 to 2 offset the injury factor for two more games?

I just don't understand the argument that we should not go to 18 games based on injuries in week 6. Aren't there already injuries week 6?

[birtikidis]

i think the arguement is more "how is playing 18 games keeping the players safer then a 16 game season" if you're going to suspend guys for hitting too hard because of player safety, how can you justify playing 18 games?
Ryan Clark was tearing twitter up last night about this...

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

i think the arguement is more "how is playing 18 games keeping the players safer then a 16 game season" if you're going to suspend guys for hitting too hard because of player safety, how can you justify playing 18 games?
Ryan Clark was tearing twitter up last night about this...

Two ways I can answer this.

First way is to say that there is no greater risk to the player by playing 20 games per year (4 PS and 16 RS) than 20 games per year (18 PS and 2 PS).

The other is to say that there is inherent risk of injury in football. Everybody knows that. The more football you play then there is an increase in the risk. Is the risk any higher in the 17th game than the 6th...11th...16th? I don't think anyone has ever argued that to be a fact. It isn't like there is a proposal to play twice a week or anything like that, just more weeks.

If the argument is simply that football is too dangerous and the more games there are then the more life threatening injuries there will be then the problem is not in how many games are played but in the game itself.

Whether it is an equipment issue, a size issue, size of the field.....I don't know. But that is what will need to be fixed, not the number of games.

[birtikidis]

S.F.T.O, sure they play 20 games right now.. but really, how much time do the starters get in teh pre-season? about a full games worth. I know it only comes out to about a one game difference, but really, that's a lot of time to get hurt.