at the very least for the love of all things holy can we get an ACTIVE 53 man roster, none of this healthy scratch nonsense. If youre on the 53 youre suited up and eligible to play
The only problem there is teams will have different numbers of healthy players on their 53, leading to an extra advantage for healthier teams. So I think for 53 active you'd need a higher roster limit overall (like 60 maybe) or at least more ability to elevate players from the practice squad.
That's a fair point, but then the roster needs to expand and the salary cap needs to expand accordingly which means if the league wants to go to 18 they're going to have to finally give the players a minimum of 50% of league revenue if not 52-53 to cover 6-10 additional roster spots.
Go to a 60 man roster and a 53 man active. Except in the post season I think the active roster should be every available player to reward teams who keep their rosters healthier.
thats always gonna be the case, whether its 48/53/60, I just meant its dumb to have a 53 man roster but only 46 or whatever it is that is active and able to play no matter injury status. Im sure the NFL has their excuse for why they do it but its nonsensical to us fans
They already are though, it's not like if our LT is injured they have to use a backup player at edge. With a deeper roster teams could most likely mitigate injury factors by subbing more guys in.
The issue isn't that they are at a disadvantage, it's about the IR.
Right now, if you have less than your full roster as game day actives, you can wait and see a week or two on a guy with a lesser injury instead of putting them right on IR and having them out longer than needed.
If the full 53 man roster is all game day actives, teams will be less likely to do that. If you have a guy that's out two weeks, you put them on IR and get them back when eligible.
The other issue is developmental guys. If you draft a guy who's just not ready for the NFL and needs a year to sit and learn, you can do that now. If every player is active, you're going to be less likely to take away a roster spot from someone who can contribute now.
Its going to make for an overall worse product with less tallent in the NFL and less starters playing.
There are other better ways to address the same issue.
even with your explanation, Im sorry I just dont get it. I dont see how having a healthy player already on the 53 man roster active and able to play hurts the league, team makeup, competitive balance, what have you while sitting healthy players that are on the roster somehow improves the game. I fully admit Im not the smartest person in the world and even ELI5 here may not make what youre saying click with me
The cap is a percentage of league revenue, so increasing the cap means the owners would get a smaller percent of league revenue. Do you think they want to pay for that?
Heard an idea related to a potential 18-game schedule: players can only suit up for 16 (or maybe 17). Forces personnel management, gives players rest, emphasizes depth.
I'd also be in favor of increased roster size and a soccer-like substitution rule: if a player exits, they can be replaced by a "reserve" player but are no longer eligible to play for the rest of the game.
That will never happen. Imagine spending a bunch of money on tickets or whatever at the start of the season only to find out all the backups are starting the game you picked to go see.
I can see why you'd think that but I can't remember the last time I watched a baseball game. My substitution idea comes from soccer, though the sports share similar rules: once a player is substituted, they're no longer eligible.
just made a similar post before seeing this. I agree, but 64 is alot. I do think they need to add 1 or 2 extra spots. 2 extra people would make a huge difference for most teams.
Or they need to make some kind rule where one December hits you can use practice squad players as active roster.
I do think a 2nd bye would be needed for an 18 game season. At some point as you add more games you gotta give them an extra week off and I think 18 games might just be the breaking point.
and they need to be planned out. All teams have bye #1 weeks 5-9 and bye #2 10-14 in roughly the same order so you dont have a team get week 9 and 10 as their byes
I like the idea of just having 4 bye weeks a year for the entire league.
Your bye is either week 5 and 12 or week 6 and 13. Those two weeks just have half the slate of normal games but they're basically all either nationally televised or in a window with 1 other game on. The 4 primetime games 2 noon games and 2 afternoon games
4-6-8 and 5-6-7 games stretches, probably about as fair as you can get it, which of course means theres zero chance the NFL uses such a common sense and fair approach
I agree. All they gota do is splut the season into 2, 9 games sections and give byes accordingly. I like the 5-9 and 10-14 but I'd even be okay with winding it to 4-9 and 10-15 if we needed to.
Im not a fan of 3 games and a bye, I feel you need at least 4 before you start needing rest, may just be me I dont know. One thing I feel is certain though is they cant repeat what they have now where teams start getting byes after 2 games and others have to play 13 before they get theirs, there needs to be more planning and fairness put into the formula
that is too easy and leaves whole weeks with no games at all which the owners would never go for, but it does show that there is a simple solution to the bye week problem that they have now and would be even worse with 18 games and only 1 bye. Half the teams off week 6 and the other half week 7 and flip the teams for weeks 12 and 13 is even a doable and fair solution
That would be kind of fun. All the speculation about what's gonna happen in 2 weeks, the mid-season memes, gives players chances to fuck up their season on byes, etc. Like an actual reality show. Don't see how the owners don't see it.
If you do that just expand it on both sides: so some it’s 5 & 11, some get 6 & 12, some get 7 & 13. Make it so your whole division is on bye at the same time so everyone’s getting the same rest as their division rivals.
In my head 2 divisions are off 5 & 11 and 2 are off 7 & 13 the other 4 divisions get the 6 & 12 and those two weeks will just be a little more thin.
It's gotta be part of the plan.
Don't bring up the BYE at all if you're ownership. At the next CBA, say you want to move to 18 games. Players say no, unless they get something in return. Ownership offers something worse, then finally settles on an extra BYE, which they wanted all along.
Second bye week is good for player health and the league. Make the season longer and the most popular sport in America even more relevant. Roster size needs to be expanded but that's a lot of money that needs to be negotiated.
Roger goodell said on Pat Mcafee that there is no data that shows additional injury on short weeks.
I’m not saying I fully buy that, just adding it for context.
I’m not sure why it would be such a big deal to add a second bye. I’ll be watching every Sunday whether it’s a 19 week regular season or a 20 week regular season
16 games with 4 wildcard spots was perfect. They’re just being greedy ass hats at the expense of player safety. Just shows they don’t actually give a shit about player safety. It’s just lip service for PR purposes.
You're telling me the same organization that tried to silence claims of CTE cares more about money than player safety?
You don’t understand, they got their own doctors to say it’s all good. Self regulation at work.
Oh, didn’t they also try to ruin the doctors career that first found CTE?
Two byes would be great. Gonna need that if you're going to make a London team work.
I'm okay with it as long as the Super Bowl wraps up before March. The Daytona 500 and NBA ASG may have to adapt but other than that February is a pretty empty sports month as far as big Sunday events go.
20 weeks puts the SB at about the last weekend in February.
100% should be two bye weeks.
First bye week should be one week before the trade deadline AND all teams have the same week. Gives a chance to review the season, decide on trades, and then be able to trade and integrate the new players.
NFL would still dominate the news cycle with all the anticipation of trades and who is talking to who.
Second bye week should be over a three week period week 12/13/14.
and youve seen how simple all of us regular Joe Schmos have made it work and keep it fair for all parties. It boggles the mind that the NFL and NFLPA cant figure out how to make it work
I remember reading some comment way back when they first started kicking around this idea of expanding the regular season to 18 games, but each rostered player was only eligable to play in 16 games each season.
Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if dudes like Kelce, and Mahomes couldn't play in those end of season matchups, or the primetime ones?
Keep it simple. You want 18 games owners? Okay... 2 preseason games, and then it goes into regular season from there... but rosters get to stay at like 60 dudes, plus like 20 for practice squad.
How about dialing it back to 16 games and two bye weeks/ team.
For a league that insists it’s about “player safety”, they sure like to enact policies and schedules that are not.
While it's intriguing to me the idea of creating opportunity for management strategy (how long do I play player X, when do I sit player Y), it introduces situations where a team might purposely not be at full strength (like in fantasy when your best few players are on bye so you don't field a team instead of dropping guys you like for a few temp players). One appealing thing about football is the best are on the field each week.
I could see that point - I definitely would think that ticket prices would slide off if the team announced and planned on starting the second stringers for a game ; but some teams already talk about sitting there starters towards the end of the season if they’ve already clinched the playoffs. So not really too different.
It's true that sitting players is not without precedent but that's almost always for just one game (very rarely 2 games), and by nature the team in question has dominated so they'll likely get fans to the games anyway, and the people are happy because their team is going to the playoffs.
It's hard to say what the strategies become but likely if the team is in the hunt, the org would want full strength to get Ws (sitting starters otherwise would make people mad, no matter how logical it may be). The only other situation is the team is out of contention, then accusations of tanking come out. Also players wanting to keep their value up for that next contract.
All this to say there are interesting things that would come up for sure.
Make one of the bye weeks the weekend before Thursday games or international games. If they are to late/early in the season to do that have them have their second bye the last two eligible weeks of the season
This was my thought. Give teams a second bye week instead of yet another regular season game that will just result in more injuries. This is just another example of how the NFL TALKS like they care about player safety but their actions say otherwise.
They should have no preseason games and another bye week. Every team should get a mid-season bye after the 9th game and then another bye that rotates throughout the season.
I don't like that idea mostly because I don't want to go two weeks without football!
But seriously, it's not unusual at all for sports outside the major US sports to have extended breaks.
It does suck ass having to work the day after a superbowl, especially when it's us winning. I'm so fucking hyped and want to celebrate, but oops have to work in 6 hours.
18 weeks, 2 byes. Byes week 5 and 14 for AFC, 6 and 15 for NFC and swap each year. During the byes schedule all even seeded interconference matchups (1s vs 1s, 2s vs 2s ect)
we already do know, and it still sucks
actually, one possible solution: treat weeks 5 and 6 as one combined "week" for fantasy purposes, same for 14 and 15
Why not 19 games?! Shoot, let’s make it an even 20! Why not 25 games minimum! Maybe just start football July 4th and play until Memorial Day…. Like, wtf are we doing here?
All teams get a bye in the first 10 weeks and all teams get a bye in the second 10 weeks (I think that would balance out correctly).
Then maybe have a Hall of Fame special during a week off in the middle of the season. Take that week to celebrate the guys going into the Hall that year. Additionally, play a "second chance" sort of game. Have a game made up of international players, undrafted players, and anyone cut/not on the practice squads. Those two teams (East Coast vs West Coast?) would be formed in the first week of the season, building up the skills/talent of these "marginal" players and giving them a shot at the big time. As a bonus (to add some excitement and real stakes), hold a single-round draft after the game (draft positions based on record going into the weekend) and the player drafted gets (at least) a league-minimum contract for the rest of the season and the teams can keep the player on the active roster for the remainder of the season without an impact on their active roster number.
This would add a great storyline for the first half of the season, give an extra week off for the players for the second half, give the teams an extra roster spot to end the season, and a chance to build depth in a place they might have an injury.
Give them the bye week and push the Super Bowl to fall on the Sunday before Presidents’ Day, get rid of Columbus Day as a national holiday and swap it for Presidents’ Day… bam, now you got the whole country the day off after the Super Bowl.
I don’t understand the 17 and 18 game schedules. TV money runs everything not the gate. Just give everyone 3 byes and have games more days of the week.
They need to add more players to the active roster. Instead of 53 should be 64.
at the very least for the love of all things holy can we get an ACTIVE 53 man roster, none of this healthy scratch nonsense. If youre on the 53 youre suited up and eligible to play
The only problem there is teams will have different numbers of healthy players on their 53, leading to an extra advantage for healthier teams. So I think for 53 active you'd need a higher roster limit overall (like 60 maybe) or at least more ability to elevate players from the practice squad.
That's a fair point, but then the roster needs to expand and the salary cap needs to expand accordingly which means if the league wants to go to 18 they're going to have to finally give the players a minimum of 50% of league revenue if not 52-53 to cover 6-10 additional roster spots. Go to a 60 man roster and a 53 man active. Except in the post season I think the active roster should be every available player to reward teams who keep their rosters healthier.
The difference in 10 more vet min guys is 8min. That's a 1.5% increase. More likely they would just pay everyone else less.
[удалено]
The cap went up from the current TV deal. If there's a Taylor Swift boom we won't see it on the cap for years.
thats always gonna be the case, whether its 48/53/60, I just meant its dumb to have a 53 man roster but only 46 or whatever it is that is active and able to play no matter injury status. Im sure the NFL has their excuse for why they do it but its nonsensical to us fans
The guy just explained the reason to you. It’s so teams with injuries aren’t disadvantaged.
They're disadvantaged no matter what if they have injuries
They already are though, it's not like if our LT is injured they have to use a backup player at edge. With a deeper roster teams could most likely mitigate injury factors by subbing more guys in.
The issue isn't that they are at a disadvantage, it's about the IR. Right now, if you have less than your full roster as game day actives, you can wait and see a week or two on a guy with a lesser injury instead of putting them right on IR and having them out longer than needed. If the full 53 man roster is all game day actives, teams will be less likely to do that. If you have a guy that's out two weeks, you put them on IR and get them back when eligible. The other issue is developmental guys. If you draft a guy who's just not ready for the NFL and needs a year to sit and learn, you can do that now. If every player is active, you're going to be less likely to take away a roster spot from someone who can contribute now. Its going to make for an overall worse product with less tallent in the NFL and less starters playing. There are other better ways to address the same issue.
even with your explanation, Im sorry I just dont get it. I dont see how having a healthy player already on the 53 man roster active and able to play hurts the league, team makeup, competitive balance, what have you while sitting healthy players that are on the roster somehow improves the game. I fully admit Im not the smartest person in the world and even ELI5 here may not make what youre saying click with me
And grass fields
I doubt the players want it enough to be willing to split the pie (ie, the cap) among more people. It would mean a pay cut for most players.
i imagine they would expand the cap proportionally
The cap is a percentage of league revenue, so increasing the cap means the owners would get a smaller percent of league revenue. Do you think they want to pay for that?
With the more corners and receivers needed nowadays, teams seem thinner than in the past
Heard an idea related to a potential 18-game schedule: players can only suit up for 16 (or maybe 17). Forces personnel management, gives players rest, emphasizes depth. I'd also be in favor of increased roster size and a soccer-like substitution rule: if a player exits, they can be replaced by a "reserve" player but are no longer eligible to play for the rest of the game.
This is dumb. A player should be able to play all available games. Awful for fans
Just have two byes. Not that hard
That will never happen. Imagine spending a bunch of money on tickets or whatever at the start of the season only to find out all the backups are starting the game you picked to go see.
Huh. Really interesting. One team bye week and one bye week for each player.
I like that idea a lot actually. Makes for much more interesting roster decisions and makes the backups for key players much more important.
baseball fan detected
I can see why you'd think that but I can't remember the last time I watched a baseball game. My substitution idea comes from soccer, though the sports share similar rules: once a player is substituted, they're no longer eligible.
just made a similar post before seeing this. I agree, but 64 is alot. I do think they need to add 1 or 2 extra spots. 2 extra people would make a huge difference for most teams. Or they need to make some kind rule where one December hits you can use practice squad players as active roster.
I do think a 2nd bye would be needed for an 18 game season. At some point as you add more games you gotta give them an extra week off and I think 18 games might just be the breaking point.
and they need to be planned out. All teams have bye #1 weeks 5-9 and bye #2 10-14 in roughly the same order so you dont have a team get week 9 and 10 as their byes
One finger on the monkey's paw curls, and the Chiefs' entire schedule is against teams coming off a bye.
We already had less rest than our opponents last year and won the supervisor super bowl, they have to mane things tougher on us
This makes too much sense, the NFL would find a way to fuck it up.
I like the idea of just having 4 bye weeks a year for the entire league. Your bye is either week 5 and 12 or week 6 and 13. Those two weeks just have half the slate of normal games but they're basically all either nationally televised or in a window with 1 other game on. The 4 primetime games 2 noon games and 2 afternoon games
4-6-8 and 5-6-7 games stretches, probably about as fair as you can get it, which of course means theres zero chance the NFL uses such a common sense and fair approach
I agree. All they gota do is splut the season into 2, 9 games sections and give byes accordingly. I like the 5-9 and 10-14 but I'd even be okay with winding it to 4-9 and 10-15 if we needed to.
Im not a fan of 3 games and a bye, I feel you need at least 4 before you start needing rest, may just be me I dont know. One thing I feel is certain though is they cant repeat what they have now where teams start getting byes after 2 games and others have to play 13 before they get theirs, there needs to be more planning and fairness put into the formula
6 games bye, 6 games bye
that is too easy and leaves whole weeks with no games at all which the owners would never go for, but it does show that there is a simple solution to the bye week problem that they have now and would be even worse with 18 games and only 1 bye. Half the teams off week 6 and the other half week 7 and flip the teams for weeks 12 and 13 is even a doable and fair solution
Lol. My brain just divided 18 by three. Did not even stop to consider that would mean no football at all week 7 lol
That would be kind of fun. All the speculation about what's gonna happen in 2 weeks, the mid-season memes, gives players chances to fuck up their season on byes, etc. Like an actual reality show. Don't see how the owners don't see it.
So A few go to week 8 and 9. And a few of 13 go to 14 and 15
If you do that just expand it on both sides: so some it’s 5 & 11, some get 6 & 12, some get 7 & 13. Make it so your whole division is on bye at the same time so everyone’s getting the same rest as their division rivals. In my head 2 divisions are off 5 & 11 and 2 are off 7 & 13 the other 4 divisions get the 6 & 12 and those two weeks will just be a little more thin.
https://youtu.be/PVrEwCa8nSA?feature=shared
A coworker and I talked about this - the 2nd bye would closely line up with college conference championship week.
It's an extra week of prime time commercials ffs. How are they not doing it already?
It's gotta be part of the plan. Don't bring up the BYE at all if you're ownership. At the next CBA, say you want to move to 18 games. Players say no, unless they get something in return. Ownership offers something worse, then finally settles on an extra BYE, which they wanted all along.
Back in the 90s we somehow got *two* bye weeks in a 16-game season. Maybe bring that back?
OR HOW ABOUT STICKING WITH THE FUCKING 16 GAME SCHEDULE THE LEAGUE ENJOYED FOR DECADES. FUCK YOU MONEY GRUBBING MF, ROGER THE ROBER. WHAT AN ASSHOLE.
Second bye week is good for player health and the league. Make the season longer and the most popular sport in America even more relevant. Roster size needs to be expanded but that's a lot of money that needs to be negotiated.
Put the second bye week before the Thursday Night game. Playing Sunday and getting barely a day of rest is horse shit and always leads to injury.
Been wanting this for years. Makes too much sense for the NFL to do though
Roger goodell said on Pat Mcafee that there is no data that shows additional injury on short weeks. I’m not saying I fully buy that, just adding it for context.
Plenty of data on shittier games and product though
I’m not sure why it would be such a big deal to add a second bye. I’ll be watching every Sunday whether it’s a 19 week regular season or a 20 week regular season
They also talked about making the Superbowl the day before president's day. That would be possible with the extra bye.
And the people would rejoice.
16 games with 4 wildcard spots was perfect. They’re just being greedy ass hats at the expense of player safety. Just shows they don’t actually give a shit about player safety. It’s just lip service for PR purposes.
You're telling me the same organization that tried to silence claims of CTE cares more about money than player safety? 
You don’t understand, they got their own doctors to say it’s all good. Self regulation at work. Oh, didn’t they also try to ruin the doctors career that first found CTE?
I knew when they okayed the guardian hats something was up. Goodell starts talking about 18 games and the dots connected.
For real, it was so perfectly symmetrical. They fucked it up after 2019.
Two byes would be great. Gonna need that if you're going to make a London team work. I'm okay with it as long as the Super Bowl wraps up before March. The Daytona 500 and NBA ASG may have to adapt but other than that February is a pretty empty sports month as far as big Sunday events go. 20 weeks puts the SB at about the last weekend in February.
It’d be great if the Super Bowl was on Presidents’ Day weekend so most people would have that Monday off after.
100% should be two bye weeks. First bye week should be one week before the trade deadline AND all teams have the same week. Gives a chance to review the season, decide on trades, and then be able to trade and integrate the new players. NFL would still dominate the news cycle with all the anticipation of trades and who is talking to who. Second bye week should be over a three week period week 12/13/14.
Never heard this idea before and I think I like it. Especially a week off with the trade deadline.
squeezing all the byes into a three week period would really suck for fantasy football though
So simple have 2 byes and it makes the season longer for the nfl and boom more money more market control over other sports
Just add a second bye week with 17 games, and expand roster size from 53 to 55-58. More TV inventory, more depth, more development, everyone wins.
Well not the Broncos and Raiders. They still don't win.
Leverage and bargaining. NFL - We want 18 weeks no bye. NFLPA - We'll give you 18 if you give us a second bye. NFL - deal!
and youve seen how simple all of us regular Joe Schmos have made it work and keep it fair for all parties. It boggles the mind that the NFL and NFLPA cant figure out how to make it work
I remember reading some comment way back when they first started kicking around this idea of expanding the regular season to 18 games, but each rostered player was only eligable to play in 16 games each season. Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if dudes like Kelce, and Mahomes couldn't play in those end of season matchups, or the primetime ones? Keep it simple. You want 18 games owners? Okay... 2 preseason games, and then it goes into regular season from there... but rosters get to stay at like 60 dudes, plus like 20 for practice squad.
How about dialing it back to 16 games and two bye weeks/ team. For a league that insists it’s about “player safety”, they sure like to enact policies and schedules that are not.
Maybe we need to play backups more if starters get too tired after that many games?
While it's intriguing to me the idea of creating opportunity for management strategy (how long do I play player X, when do I sit player Y), it introduces situations where a team might purposely not be at full strength (like in fantasy when your best few players are on bye so you don't field a team instead of dropping guys you like for a few temp players). One appealing thing about football is the best are on the field each week.
I could see that point - I definitely would think that ticket prices would slide off if the team announced and planned on starting the second stringers for a game ; but some teams already talk about sitting there starters towards the end of the season if they’ve already clinched the playoffs. So not really too different.
It's true that sitting players is not without precedent but that's almost always for just one game (very rarely 2 games), and by nature the team in question has dominated so they'll likely get fans to the games anyway, and the people are happy because their team is going to the playoffs. It's hard to say what the strategies become but likely if the team is in the hunt, the org would want full strength to get Ws (sitting starters otherwise would make people mad, no matter how logical it may be). The only other situation is the team is out of contention, then accusations of tanking come out. Also players wanting to keep their value up for that next contract. All this to say there are interesting things that would come up for sure.
That happens enough due to injuries, and with a 18 game schedule, there will be more injuries
And one less preseason game?
Make one of the bye weeks the weekend before Thursday games or international games. If they are to late/early in the season to do that have them have their second bye the last two eligible weeks of the season
Salary cap could still only include top 51, so you could expans it to 60 and not have to mess with the cap increase or revenue increase.
This was my thought. Give teams a second bye week instead of yet another regular season game that will just result in more injuries. This is just another example of how the NFL TALKS like they care about player safety but their actions say otherwise.
They should have no preseason games and another bye week. Every team should get a mid-season bye after the 9th game and then another bye that rotates throughout the season.
Maybe even all teams get a two week break after the 9th game? Sounds like a solid idea
I don't like that idea mostly because I don't want to go two weeks without football! But seriously, it's not unusual at all for sports outside the major US sports to have extended breaks.
Medical Teams and Physios are licking their lips about asking for a raise.
It does suck ass having to work the day after a superbowl, especially when it's us winning. I'm so fucking hyped and want to celebrate, but oops have to work in 6 hours.
18 weeks, 2 byes. Byes week 5 and 14 for AFC, 6 and 15 for NFC and swap each year. During the byes schedule all even seeded interconference matchups (1s vs 1s, 2s vs 2s ect)
that would suck for fantasy football though, since half the league would be off during those four weeks
But you would know going in who was on each bye week so it would add strategy to it.
we already do know, and it still sucks actually, one possible solution: treat weeks 5 and 6 as one combined "week" for fantasy purposes, same for 14 and 15
Yeah thatd be better than it is currently anyway
Why not 19 games?! Shoot, let’s make it an even 20! Why not 25 games minimum! Maybe just start football July 4th and play until Memorial Day…. Like, wtf are we doing here?
All teams get a bye in the first 10 weeks and all teams get a bye in the second 10 weeks (I think that would balance out correctly). Then maybe have a Hall of Fame special during a week off in the middle of the season. Take that week to celebrate the guys going into the Hall that year. Additionally, play a "second chance" sort of game. Have a game made up of international players, undrafted players, and anyone cut/not on the practice squads. Those two teams (East Coast vs West Coast?) would be formed in the first week of the season, building up the skills/talent of these "marginal" players and giving them a shot at the big time. As a bonus (to add some excitement and real stakes), hold a single-round draft after the game (draft positions based on record going into the weekend) and the player drafted gets (at least) a league-minimum contract for the rest of the season and the teams can keep the player on the active roster for the remainder of the season without an impact on their active roster number. This would add a great storyline for the first half of the season, give an extra week off for the players for the second half, give the teams an extra roster spot to end the season, and a chance to build depth in a place they might have an injury.
i'm still trying to figure out how they made a 17th game but didn't add like 1 or 2 extra roster spots.
Give them the bye week and push the Super Bowl to fall on the Sunday before Presidents’ Day, get rid of Columbus Day as a national holiday and swap it for Presidents’ Day… bam, now you got the whole country the day off after the Super Bowl.
I don’t understand the 17 and 18 game schedules. TV money runs everything not the gate. Just give everyone 3 byes and have games more days of the week.