During the NFL season whenever my New England Patriots lost,the six days until the next game seem to drag on forever. Do you feel the same way for your team? The media, blogs and fans dissect what went wrong and suggest advice on how the team can improve for next week. During the NFL offseason, our hunger for football doesn’t stop. We follow teams to find out about the latest acquisitions and current injuries. The NFL season always seems to go by quickly every year, making each of those regular season games precious.
This got me thinking. Could NFL fans ever get too much football? What would happen if the NFL tripled its regular season to 48 games? Of course this is crazy and it would never happen, because all the players would be in hospital beds before the season ended.
You can’t ignore injuries. It is part of the game and the reason why the season so short. Sure you want your star players on the field, but do fans really care who is on the field? In 2008, after Tom Brady went down with a knee injury, Patriots fans might have been upset and lost hope with Matt Cassel leading the way, but fans still showed up for Patriot home games.
If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell extended the regular season to 48 games today, with teams playing at least three times a week. Could an absurd 48 game regular season make fans lose any interest, resulting in lower attendance and television ratings?
I think one of the reasons why the NFL is so popular is because of its short regular season. Each game is important, if a NFL team starts a season 0-3, their chances of making the playoffs are slim. Whereas in the other three major sports a team can begin 0-3 and have many more opportunities to right the ship.
Each NFL game matters and almost a majority of teams sell out their homes games. Well, except in Jacksonville. The college basketball regular season is watered down and fans don’t seem to be interested until the calendar hits March. In MLB, attendance seems to take a plunge for a few squads after the home opener.
Yeah, I know this is a wild scenario, but football is king in the U.S, stadiums are always full, ratings are high and NFL news even in May usually makes it on the front page. Do injuries really matter, would the NFL suffer in at all with a 48 game season, even if starters didn’t play half the games? Or is love for football too strong for fans to ever lose any interest in the regular season. What are your thoughts?
I think injuries do matter. The NFL and all the radio shows always talk about how tough it is to play football. The players have grown up playing once a week.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the body could take it if they are playing more than that. They are already taking a beating doing the schedule they have.
I realize hockey players play more than once a week and they are hitting each other too but it is a different kind of impact.
Yes they fill the stadiums but I don't think this would work.