The NFL has been pushing to extend its regular season schedule to 18 games and the leagues reasons are clear--they want more revenue. The players, because they want to live long enough to see their children graduate high school and college, aren’t on board. As for the fans, we’re right in the middle--a lot of us want more games because, well, it means more football to watch, but we also do care about the health of the players. I think we do? At least I do. So here’s the question: Is there a way the league can tinker with the
schedule to make every party, including themselves, happy? Why yes, yes there is.
A 14 game schedule with a five round, 28 team playoff.
How it works:
The top two teams in each conference get a first round bye. In order to keep the eight divisions intact, the four division winner that didn’t get a first round bye are guaranteed the 3 and 4 seed in their conference.
Ok I know, I know, the whole 28 team thing sounds amateur, ignorant, and downright stupid. I mean, seriously, you can’t allow that many teams to make the playoffs, that’s dumb. You know that and I know that. After consideration, though, I realized it isn’t as dumb as it sound’s; in fact, it’s not dumb at all, it’s just radical. It’s so radical that, if this were 500 years ago, I would be stoned to death for publishing such a proposal, let alone mentioning it.
Everything below this sentence will answer all of the questions, concerns, and flaws that NFL fans, players owners, and TV networks, might have with this “dumb” idea.
Owners and TV networks: How does playing less games equate to more revenue?
In this instance, less is more. The season would technically be a 15 game season for every team but the four who don’t make it. Sure that is still one less regular week of football, but you can’t convince me that the first two rounds of a 28 team playoff wouldn’t make-up for the money lost from not
having that extra week of football. Yes the final week of the current 16 game season can be good TV being that teams’ playoff births and positioning are on the line, but what about all those games where a team uses the final week to rest their starters for the playoffs? What about those games where one, maybe both teams’ players and fan bases have already checked out after nine weeks of the season?
Playoffs aside, this new proposition I’m making would result in the most incredibly entertaining final three week stretch of professional football that any of us could ever imagine. That means more money for you--the sponsors of CBS and Fox. Trust me, if you’re an owner or a TV network executive, the last thing you need to worry about is whether or not this thing would be financially beneficial.
The players: If the owners are in favor of this... surely I can’t be in favor of it, right?
Oh yes you can. The maximum number of games you would ever play would be 19 (14 in regular season and a maximum of 5 in the playoffs), no more than it is now. But what’s really important is that more than half of you player’s will probably play 15 games per season or less, which is exactly what you want, right? You won’t just get fewer games, you’ll have the opportunity to play in a number of more meaningful games. Regardless of how much money you make or how “professional” you are, it’s gotta be hard to get yourself up to play a game in December when your team is 2-11? I mean, at that point the fans 
have either given up completely or they want you to lose so that the team gets a higher draft pick. You’re left playing in a half empty stadium with a -10 degree windchill carving out your bones. Unless you’re a young player trying to keep your job, at that point, in all realness, you have nothing left to play for. Wouldn’t you and your teammates like it if you were guaranteed to play a game (even if it was as a 14 seed against a 3) where you could all come together and leave everything on the field to show you’re better than your 4-10 record suggest? Wouldn’t you like the chance to improve that 14 seed into a 13, 12, or 11 just so you could escape playing the Saints in the first round of the playoffs? As for you Dwight Freeney and Reggie Wayne, wouldn’t it boost your morale if, this season, you knew that there was a good chance that Peyton Manning would be
back at under center? Instead, there was no reason for him to return to the field even if he was healthy.
Another caveat that makes this work is that they could still keep the pre-season at 4 games. Yes fans hate the four games, but they’re important for the coaches and late round/un-drafted players trying to make an NFL roster.
The Fans: A league where that many teams’ make the playoffs, huh? What’s the point of the regular season?
I’ve been asking that same question about college basketball for years, “What’s the point of the regular season?” Fortunately, the NFL playoffs aren’t played on neutral sites. Unlike the NCAA basketball tournament, where teams play in an unfamiliar dome at 10 o’clock at night 400 miles away from their home stomping grounds, this 28 team-one game elimination playoff format would be more predictable and far more fair. Home field advantage goes a long way in the NFL. Everyone know’s the BCS is dumb and that’s why a lot of people prefer the NFL. Well, if your the head of the NFL, you already know you’re league is on top of the world. So why not boost your ego even more by putting another NCAA playoff system to shame by showing how dumb the predetermined, regional sites are for the men’s basketball tournament?
Speaking of the NCAA tournament...
We love the NCAA tournament, the first couple of rounds have become like a national holiday. What makes the NCAA basketball tournament so enthralling are the cinderella stories and crazy upsets. You know what makes a cinderella story and a crazy upset even better?--when you’ve actually had the opportunity to familiarize yourself with all of the teams over the course of the season. Virginia Commonwealth and Butler were a nice story and all, but seriously, ask yourself this: Would Joey Rodriguez leading the Golden Rams to the Final Four even compare to seeing Cam Newton and the Panthers
making a run in the playoffs as a 12 seed? What about a nine seed Butler taking down number one seed Pittsburgh? Is that better than a rusty, Peyton Manning leading a 3-11 Colts team past Houston and into New England? Now that would be television at its finest. Professional sports at its finest. Hell, America at its finest.
Still, the regular season would lose soooo much value, you can’t replace that.
Wait, let me make sure I’m clear with that statement that it would lose a ton of value. By asking that are you trying to imply that this new format would take away from our being able to argue Brady or Rodgers alllll season long? Are you suggesting that this new 14 game schedule where nearly all the teams make the playoffs would negate our being able to watch Tony Romo de-combust in the fourth quarter and our getting to laugh about it afterwards? That it would take away our desire to write Michael Vick columns for 12 straight months? That people would refrain from betting on games or playing fantasy football? That it would diminish the value of a Ravens/Steelers or Pats/Jets game? That we would ignore every word that came out of Rex Ryan’s mouth? That
people would refrain from putting the Dallas Cowboys on a pedestal? That weekly internet power rankings would cease to exist? That Skip Bayless would refrain from going ballistic each Monday morning?
Nope, all of those cool things that make the NFL so great would still be there. And isn’t that what makes half the intrigue of the NFL? All the little arguments of Skip Bayless, all the sub-plots, all the our guy/our team is better than yours, all the premature “We finally found our quarterback” proclamations by Browns fans? All the waiting to see if the guy on the cover of Madden has his leg sawed in half?
Say I’m a Patriots fan, how can I ever be on board with the idea that a no-good, worthless, lousy, idiotic, embarrassment of a Jaguars team could knock me out of the playoffs all because of a few bad calls and bad breaks going the Pats way. Screw that.
You’re 100% correct. Screw that and screw bad teams, they don’t deserve a chance. Unfortunately you and the rest of your fan base represents about 8% of the total NFL population, therefore, if your team is unfairly ousted by the Jaguars, the other 92% of the NFL community will benefit. People love when bad things happen to really good teams. All of us do. Plus, if you’re a Patriots fan, would getting knocked out in the first couple of rounds by a lousy team really be that much worse than going 14-2 and getting eliminated in the divisional round by an obnoxious, all talk, good for nothing, haven’t proven anything, “Can’t wait”, New York Jets team????
Playoff map: Here’s how the playoffs would look: For the first round you have seven games on Saturday, seven games on Sunday. Pretty simple. Four games a 1 o’clock, three at 4 o’clock with a couple staggered 4:15 games being thrown in there and one 8 o’clock game on Saturday. The higher seeds would play on Saturday so that in the next round they would have an extra day of rest compared to their opponent. Oh, and you shut the entire country down for that weekend and make it a national holiday.
Here’s the point: This particular playoff participation structure is the final destination of the NFL and professional sports in general. The NFL is already ahead of the game in terms of creating the best product for the fans, that’s because they’ve taken full grasp of the concept of parity. Because of that, the NFL is the closest thing to a perfect league. How would one define a perfect professional sports league? In my educated opinion, a perfect league (or close to it) is one in which the interests and hopes of the broad population of fans is sustained for as long as possible. You know how I know this? Because no one cared that the NBA was losing games during the lockout. Why didn’t we care? Because unless your team has one or two of the dozen or so stars, your team has no choice but to hope to land Harrison Barnes, and the only way to land a guy like Barnes is to be bad, and if your team is bad enough to get Barnes you probably aren’t paying for a ticket, watching their games, or even giving a damn in the first place. The same goes for baseball, no one has cared about the MLB over the last decade because, unless your team is in a big market with plenty of cash flow, you’re pretty much as good as dead from the start (for the most part).
Big Picture: I know that whenever one of the three Cleveland teams finds itself either, in the playoffs or in contention for them, Cleveland is a better place. Everyone’s happier, local bars and restaurant's make more money, everyone walks around with a bit more pep in their step, and our racial, social, and economical differences are somewhat forgotten because we’re commonly bound by our local team. We’re in the 21st century and sports are a big deal. For better or worse, they do, in fact, play a huge role on society.
Conclusion: A greater number of invested viewers=more money for players, owners, TV networks, the list goes on. A National Football League where 28 teams make the playoffs=A greater number of invested viewers. Teams spend boat loads of money on their marketing departments just so they can come up with team slogans, halftime shows, fireworks, ticket packages, fan
appreciation night’s, dollar dog night’s, etc., when, really, it’s not about that. Sure everyone can appreciate a good firework show, but you know what’s better than fireworks?? A team that the fans can follow and watch throughout the entire season. Rooting for a team that has hope.
Will we ever actually see the NFL adopting this 28 team playoff extravaganza?
Maybe. Face it, the NFL has its fans hostage. We're not happy they altered the rules so that players are forbidden to lay a pinky on the QB or hit receivers in the wrong way, but we still watch. We were furious throughout the lockout, but when it ended we were back and better than ever. My point is that the NFL can afford to adopt this, now it’s just a matter of waiting for them to realize that they can’t afford not to. I’ll give it to about the year 2028 to happen.
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