The More The Merrier?

As an increasingly likely labor lockout looms, NFL owners are preparing to vote on a proposal to expand the regular season to 18 games. WAIT!!! NO!!!! STOP!!! WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GIVE US MORE OF THE GREATEST GAME ON EARTH!!! OK, OK, so perhaps the rabid fan contingent is the not most critical factor in the outcome of this debate.

The players, for one, don't seem to be taking kindly to the idea. Some are concerned with increased risks of injury, others with the dilution of the value of each regular season win (to be sure, the more games, the more room for error, and with that, the potential for less excitement and less meaning wrapped up in each weekly battle). Those in favor point to chopping down the unnecessarily long preseason in favor of more games that actually count. And for the season ticket holder who pays regular price for these games, this may be especially true. After all, who wants to toss away a couple hundred clams to see the starters play for a quarter, at best?

Still, the rebuttals to the case for an 18-game regular season (which, admittedly, range far beyond those raised here) seem to have merit. Could extra games really dilute the intensity of a divisional turf war in October? Isn't it bad enough that we must endure a Week 17 that not even fantasy owners are willing to stake their seasons on? Could Weeks 18 and 19 mean a virtual month off for the top teams’ top talent?

Look, I cannot, in my right mind, oppose more football - certainly not more meaningful football. But the more I consider the potential downsides of an 19-week football bonanza, the more even this pigskin junky must pause at the prospect.