"However, the NFL isn’t blameless either. The Shield currently sits at 17 games and thanks to gambling and fantasy football, that number will soon reach 18 or higher."

Hey I LOVE football, not many things make me happier than sitting down watching the Packers kick ass on Sundays...Or Thursdays, Saturdays, and Mondays too. Last year they played 17 games which IMO is more than enough. As much as I'd love to watch the Packers play an additional game or two in the regular season, the chances of a player or players getting injured increases dramatically with each game.

There's also this...Add on another two games for example to the regular season and the Packers are playing playoff football IN February. After watching Aaron Rodgers look like he wanted NOTHING to do with the 49ers in January weather, I can only imagine what happens with a few more games in February.

STOP screwing with the product. The product is just fine the way it is!

"Season ticket holders pay big money for a glimpse of their team and to rob them of that chance takes away the essence of sports."

I tried to wrap my head around this sentence, and just can't. Season ticket holders have either five/six or three/four games to see their team live, and all the rest on television. That's a glimpse?

And depriving them of one game where they're prevented from seeing their favorite player play? If that takes away the essence of sports, someone feeling that way needs to revisit their priorities and sense of entitlement.

The NBA is largely unwatchable now because of other factors like reliance on the three point shot and lack of defense. The players coast knowing a minimal effort will likely get them in the playoffs. Once the playoffs start you start to see what the NBA can be every night if the season was shorter.

In the NFL, the season is five games longer than it was 60 years ago. That's a lot. What the NFL should do is SHORTEN the regular season to 14 games but then expand the playoffs. Also, the season should start before Labor Day.

The fans are paying ridiculous sums to see a game and have to sit through endless commercial breaks on TV. More revenue is actually making the game worse, not better.

"Season ticket holders pay big money for a glimpse of their team and to rob them of that chance takes away the essence of sports. The whole reason why we go to games is because of the small chance that we may see something that has never happened before. "

People go to NFL games in part for the opportunity to see the players and the game, but they also pay for the spectacle of it. They go to be in the stands with 75+k of their "closest friends", to wander around parking lots seeing what other tailgaters are doing, to visit the concessions and apparel booths, to commisserate...when you've only got 8 or so odd home games, each one is an event.

The NFL has to realize that they're slowly choking the golden chicken here. They have to see that as the NBA goes increasingly corporate, the quality on the court matters less. So long as the NFL cares about the product on the field (and it seems increasingly iffy), they should be fine...but owners who want to line their pocket with easy TV and licensing money will be the ultimate problem.

I agree with everything posted by all the aforementioned posters.

Having said that the only players in a competitive game where load management applies is:

1. With injury
2. Age
3. Rotation issues on DL and at Edge
4. RB

I am not aware of load management other than above with Packers during regular season.

For record I stopped watching ANY NBA basketball over 20 years ago even though my favorite sport because they ruined the game. It no longer is basketball. Will avoid a rant! Now NCAA Men's Basketball is a whole different ball game. Play as a team moving ball around, back screens, and all players give 110% all the time.

If you have to manage the load, perhaps it's too much? I wholeheartedly agree Cory. Load management is bad for the fans and bad for the game.

Load Management? You mean the time of day I have to leave one? After reading this, I think it's time.

What bothers me a lot is that teams demand that season ticket holders also buy the entire package of exhibition (pre-season) games. And who do you get to see? Guys who hope to make the practice squad, and a lot of guys who have a lot of hope but no realistic chance of making an NFL roster. The only bright spot is there are only three of these scrimmages to watch this year. But, to your point, roster expansion is likely to be coming with the lengthening of the regular season. And recall, once a division is clinched, or playoff seeding determined, it has become more likely the starters will be rested for the playoffs, so this is not something new.

Is there still a league called the NBA?

As the league expands the schedule and continues travel to Europe I think there is an increasing chance that players will want to take a week off.

A well paid player will not want to risk their future earnings to an injury caused by an over extended schedule which wears them down as the season goes on, especially in a meaningless game. If you don’t think this is true just ask how many times have we all seen a player’s performance drop off during the season after they sign a huge contract.
How often have we seen a team’s level of play drop off after winning an SB? “Load management” has already been happening but in a very subtle manner.

If the league actually cared about the players, the quality of play and the fans they would go back to a 16 or 14 game schedule, dump TNF, and dump games in Europe. They’re all unnecessary money grabs that dilute the product on the field.

At the least with the expanded 17 game schedule, they should add a bye week, dump TNF and stop the travel
to Europe.

I understand that the league doesn’t care about the fans and that they want to attract as many European fans as possible to watch NFL games on TV so they need to play some games in Europe to create interest. But all of that is just a means to prepare for the day when TV presents the “in game” experience and fans will pay to watch every game on TV and get to choose their view of the game by picking a virtual seat to watch the game from and pay for it accordingly. That’s still about 5-8 years away but it’s coming.
Why? Because why would a team owner sell only 80,000 tickets per game when they could sell millions to fans all over the country who want to “be at” the game. Remember the big tech companies are not getting involved in the TV deals for nothing. They know how close they are to delivering their “in game” experience. Now they want to be paid for their research and development.

At that point the league will probably have an 18 game schedule and may expand to 36 teams. Plus the additional revenue will become vital to covering the exploding player salaries and the roster expansion required for the expanded schedule. While the games become more of a competition between big tech for which company delivers the best “at the game” experience versus what happens on the field.

I won’t even go to where the legalized gambling is likely to take the NFL and all sports. I can only say that at some point during this evolution of the NFL I will be getting off the train. Thanks, Since ‘61

Once Upon A Time, I was a big basketball fan. I had season tickets to the Spurs. Now, it's been several years since I've watched even a couple of minutes on the NBA. It's a sham sport, in a sham league, playing a sham schedule. Most games come down to a couple instances of subjective officiating. And that was before they started telling me how bad the US was and how great China is. They can bite me, I'm done with them.

17 games is misleading. It's really a lot more than that, counting training camp, OTAs, and playoffs. Very few guys are healthy after even 10 games, and now we're playing twice that many. Most of us could not survive a week doing what they do.

I remember Tony Dorsett was limited to 20 carries, and he hated it, but later said it probably prolonged his career. If we're going to continue to make the season longer and more difficult, I have two suggestions.

1) Abolish limits on roster size. I mean, if everybody has the same amount of money to spend, then let them spend it how they want. If you'd like to dress 60 guys, great. If you want to get by with 40, that's fine too. Before the salary cap, roster limits made sense because they prevented teams from just stocking up on all the good players, but now....it's anachronistic.

2) Play a split season. Two 9 game seasons with a week off between. If you win your division in either split, you make the playoffs. If you win your division both times, you get bye in the playoffs. Since there's only 9 games, it would decrease the likelihood that you could just mail it in a week and still win the division.

Those are my suggestions. Personally, I wish they'd quit screwing around. 16 had a nice symmetry. 2 Conferences, 4 divisions each, 4 teams in each division. 8 home and 8 away. 12 teams make the playoffs, 20 wait until next year. Now, 14 make it and 18 don't....that's almost as bad as the NBA, playing an entire season to eliminate half the teams. Pointless.

I never really developed a passion to go to games and why I haven't gone to any in a long, long time. The reason(s) for that I'll leave unmentioned as it would compel many to scream that I can't be a true fan if I don't go to games.

I wonder why so many cannot grasp the fact that the NFL doesn't give a damn if the fans are there, because the money derived from the fanbase is no longer a need but rather an extra spoonful of gravy on the meal that is TV rights and all the other aspects.

The fan, though spoken as if much-needed royal subjects are treated like the cardboard cutouts used in the Covid year. If the fans were really important, the season would have been canceled because they couldn't go to the games, but they spent a lot of money to maneuver around to cover up that little nuance to ensure the TV money, etc. Think about it. They played games in front of cardboard cutouts, which the fan had to pay for, with no problem, and then gave the gracious, though likely mandated shoutout, we miss you. How do you miss someone you just showed you didn't need to play the games while everything else was being shut down except sports. They have convinced/ brainwashed you into believing that sports is all that matters and you must kneel to whatever they decide to do to the game and you.

No, I have long ago lost the desire to go to a game, believe an autograph is precious, to see a player closeup. In fact, I find great solace in the fact that I can simply turn the game off and still have the coin at my disposal for something that actually is in need of my attendance and holds that in regard to any level as it would be higher than anything the game or players would ever have for me.

If the NFL needed you more than the other revenue paths, the money demanded by the players wouldn't be as it has become, but they don't and the money lost if cardboard cutouts were the custom would be like Gates, Bezos, or Musk thinking they need to pick up the $100.00 dollar bill on the floor in front of him. They wouldn't. They'd simply step over it as the NFL and other sports leagues do to you, the fan.

Call it progress, but in case you haven't noticed, progress is making life harder and harder for people to survive, but in the name of winning, fans will always turn a blind eye, bend the knee, and take one for the team even when the players or the league won't.

I have no problem with my load management, I just turn the game off, and the league doesn't notice or care.

Reported that Rodgers doesn’t plan to attend OTAs. Not a surprise but not encouraging with a whole bunch of new receivers and ones he barely threw to last year. According to Murphy, a great chance to see more of Love ….

Now there is some load balancing in action.

NFL players literally kill themselves for your entertainment.

Take a look at the data on average lifespans of NFL players compared to the National averages.

This doesn’t take into account the debilitating and sometimes crippling deterioration and pain many players deal with starting in their early 40’s.

Selfish? Wrong? Cory, get the eff outta here with that.

Now, that being said… QBs are some of the most protected players in all contact sports. None the less, these players are financial investments and teams want to protect their investments.

Still… nothing makes me more sick to my stomach than a bunch of fans in seats demanding a player must play hurt or otherwise perform when it may not be in the best interests of the players health because they spent some money on tickets and a jersey.. it feels like it’s only a few steps away from Mandingo fight mentality.

It’s disgusting.

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I went from being a big college and pro basketball fan. Then, I started to only turn on NBA games in the fourth quarter. Now, I don't watch it at all. [The NFL has some amazing comebacks in the fourth quarter, bu the first three quarters still really matter.]

I can't find two and half or three hours times 162 games. Guys adjusting their gloves after every pitch drives me nuts. I went from being a huge fan to never watching MLB at all. Not even the World Series.

Guaranteed contracts are a really bad idea.