The NFL seems close to pushing for one of its more insane proposals, suggesting an 18 game season with a 16 game player limit in its 2020 CBA negotiations with the league. Pro Football Talk, originally sourced from the Wall Street Journal, reported the idea last week.
“Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal reports that, as part of the NFL’s push for 18 regular-season games, the league has advanced the possibility of an 18-game season with a per-player limit of 16 games per year.”
The player limit, I assume, would be under the cover of “player safety,” the thing the league likes to pay lip service to when they know it’s necessary. Meaning, unless exceptions for certain positions were made – which would fly in the face of the “safety” concern, by the way – Ben Roethlisberger, and every member of the roster, would have to sit out at least two games per season. Even if they’re fully healthy and available to play.
This is a terrible idea. And that’s the criticism the league’s received from fans. Players too. On the Steelers’ side, Cam Heyward and Ramon Foster have taken to Twitter to denounce the suggestion.
This seems like so bad of an idea put forward by the NFL, even though they’re a league chock full of them, that it almost seems intentional. Create such a bad proposal, so easily rejected, that it will make the NFL’s goal of an 18 game season without a player limit easier to do. Expand rosters, add a bye week, and make it look like a compromise with the NFLPA, even though it’s what the league wanted all along.
While the early signs of new CBA talk are encouraging, this serves a reminder of all the issues both sides are going to have to wade through. The league will make its push for a longer season, something most players are against. And the union has plenty of gripes, too. From how contracts are structured to the judge/jury/executioner/ power Roger Goodell holds.
