The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States for a reason. It's exciting, strategic, and just violent enough to satisfy the reptile part of our brains without feeling too much like a complete bloodthirsty monster. Oh and you can bet on it. And I mean you can really bet on it. Toss in the fact that it is the best friend of Capitalism with natural breaks for many, many, many, many commercials and you have the perfect American sport!
So obviously the NFL is always going to try to maximize their profits by displaying their product as often as possible. Back in my day we got to see football on Sunday afternoons and Monday Nights... and we liked it. But of course we wanted more! So the NFL added Sunday Nights and Thursday nights. Awesome!... unless you are a player.
NFL players have described playing in the NFL (especially on the line of scrimmage) as being in a car accident... 60 times in a day. Now I am no car accident expert but that sure seems like a lot. The human body needs time to heal after one car accident. I can only imagine what it needs to do after suffering 60. Before Thursday Night Football was added to the schedule, players got a minimum of six days to recover in between car accidents... I mean games. But when a team plays on Sunday and then four days later, they simply don't have enough time to properly recover. I honestly cannot believe the players' union has allowed this to be part of their standard working conditions.
On a separate note, the date of the Super Bowl is also a problem for the NFL... and the country. Surveys indicate that 26.2 MILLION people call in sick to work the day after the Super Bowl. U.S. businesses lose an estimated $5.2 BILLION in lost productivity the day after the Super Bowl.
Wow I wish there were a way to solve this problem. But huh hum... wait there is!
Here is how to fix two problems at once while adding another week of revenue for the NFL.
Step 1: make the Superbowl the Sunday before Washington's Birthday. It is already a National Holiday so that takes care of the lost wages and calling in sick. Plus it means I can get Super Drunk at the Super Bowl party!
Step 2: Add a second bye to every team's schedule. This would mean that the NFL could be on for an extra week. Which is really what they want. We would have an extra week without our favorite team but there are plenty of other teams to root for (or even more fun... to root against). Oh and it is one more week where you can lose your rent money betting on parlays.
Step 3: Make sure any team that plays on Thursday night is coming off a bye week. This would give every player a minimum of 9 days of rest before their Thursday night game.
Step 4: Start the season on with a Thursday night game.
Step 5: Have two teams start their season on the second Thursday and not play again until the Sunday 9 days later. Later in the season you can get really clever and have a team play those December Saturday games 8 days after their previous Thursday night game.
More weeks of football. More time for players to rest. A day off after the Super Bowl. Profit.
Can anyone poke hole sin this idea?
