Much as I have enjoyed watching the excellence of Tom Brady and the Patriots South the last two seasons, as Jerry Glanville once said— the NFL stands for Not For Long, when it comes to the issue of players getting injured, and often permanently out of the game. And frankly it was nothing other than pure greed that led to the extending of the season to 17 games, and more teams in the playoffs— including teams that had no business being in the playoffs (in this case the Eagles and the Steelers). And all of the remaining teams after the dust cleared on Wild Card Weekend had major injuries to major players. It’s time for some sense and circumspection since playoff football is more like rock ’em sock ’em robots than normal football. It’s time to stop diluting the quality of the game by adding extra opportunities to get hurt, including star players getting hurt.
So, I’d say, do a reset—- back to 16 games and back to the double bye, not least because then the teams that had the best records have more time to heal up before they get into the playoffs. But I doubt any of the owners or the commissioner or the players union is listening….. because this is all about money, and now that the scourge of gambling has gotten its tentacles around even this major sport, things are on the road to perdition, not perfection.
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