Players object to 18-game season on health care grounds
The National Football League (NFL) wants to cut short the pre-season from four games to two, and extend the regular season from 16 games to 18. The total games played during a season would remain the same, but pre-season games do not attract as much attention
or viewer ship as those in the regular season. The NFL hopes to boost revenues with the new regular season format, and claims that this is what the fans want to see.
While we can’t be sure what the fans really want, we do know without a doubt that it is not something the players are looking forward to. The pre-season games are often used by teams to test their backups. Although the starters do play in those games, they
are less physically intense. Players make sure not to injure themselves or others in the pre-season, and try to make it through those games so they can play in the regular season.
While the preseason is about getting back in the game and preparing for the season ahead, the regular season is all about winning. To win, the players throw their bodies in harm’s way, which results in a plethora of injuries during the regular season. Players
are already battered and bruised after 16 games, and two more games would almost certainly make a few existing injuries much worse, and potentially even end careers.
“To me, right now, as things stand, 18 games, the way it's being proposed, is completely unacceptable. ... I see more and more players get injured every season,” Cleveland Browns linebacker Scott Fujita said on Tuesday. Fujita is a member of the NFL Players
Association’s (NFLPA) executive committee.
Fujita added, “There are so many things now — with player health and safety, and the future of us and our families — that aren't even being considered. And for us, it's disappointing. It feels like a slap in the face.”
The NFL and the players unions have until March to sort out those issues, and reach an agreement which both the players and the NFL can get behind. If a new collective bargaining agreement is not signed by that deadline, NFL owners have threatened a lockout.
However, the players union has no intentions of backing down. Union spokesman George Atallah emphasised the fact that over 350 active players had been placed on the injured reserve during last year’s 16-game regular season. The average number of games that
each player missed was 9 and a half.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tried to down play those numbers. He said that a few hundred players out of 2,600 each year in the NFL was not a troubling sign, but on the contrary meant that injuries were not as great a risk as the union wants them to appear
to be. Aiello also questioned the league’s claim of the number of games missed on average. He said that the number put up by the union also included un-drafted rookies, who had been placed on the injured reserve for the season and players with minor injuries,
who were let go by their teams after an injury settlement.
Another NFLPA Executive Committee member, Dominique Foxworth said that the players put their bodies on the line to play football and they generate a lot of revenue, but still only get just five years of health benefits after retirement. “And then they want
to tack on two more games ... which is just going to multiply the injuries and the ailments that we're going to see after we go into our 40’s, 50’s, 60’s — 70’s, if we're lucky. ... We're not willing to budge on health and safety, and we'd like to gain some
more ground in ways we can protect former players and current players.”
Both Foxworth and Fujita have been placed on injured reserve this season. Fujita said that the league had put nothing on the table which would make it worth considering an 18-game season. Judging by how the negotiations are going and the issues that need
to be resolved, Fujita believes that a lockout is inevitable.
He also accused the owners of trying to buy lockout insurance in the form of multibillion dollar guaranteed media deals. “Does it sound like 'lockout insurance'? Absolutely. Does it sound like a war chest to me? Absolutely.”
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