2021 Random NFL Stuff Thread...
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NFL’s expanded 17-game schedule: 5 things football fans should know
By Lindsay Jones Mar 30, 2021
The 17-game NFL schedule is here.
The league’s owners on Tuesday voted to expand the regular season, a move that’s been expected for about a year, ever since the 17-game option was included in the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement.
It’s not a coincidence that NFL owners on Tuesday also formally approved the league’s new media deals, worth more than $100 billion. These two moves will shape the NFL landscape for at least the next decade, with more games headed overseas and more games available on streaming platforms.
“This gives us more meaningful and quality games that otherwise would not have been scheduled,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.
This year’s schedule should be completed by early May, but for now, let’s look at the most important things to know about the new 17-game slate:
1. The return of fans
We’ll start with a note that, hopefully, applies just to this year, as Goodell is now on the record saying the NFL is planning for fans to return and fill the league’s stadiums to capacity for this new 272-game slate.
A limited number of fans attended slightly more than 100 games in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Goodell declined to say if the league intends to require fans to be vaccinated in order to attend games in person this fall.
But it is clear that vaccinations will be part of the league’s plans to get back to normal.
The league will not require its players or staff to get the vaccine, but Goodell said it would be “encouraged” and the league would use its sizable platform to educate the public and its own personnel about the value of the vaccine.
Whether stadiums are full, empty or something in between won’t be completely up to the NFL, no matter what Goodell is projecting in late March. Teams will still have to comply with state and local ordinances, which still vary across the country.
“All of us in the NFL want to see every one of our fans back,” Goodell said. “Football is not the same without fans, and we expect to have full stadiums in the upcoming season.”
2. An extra inter-conference game
One of the more complicated parts about expanding the schedule to 17 games was figuring out how to add another game, when the league’s previous calendar was built nicely to accommodate a 32-team league, divided evenly into 16-team conferences and four-team divisions. The NFL had to figure out a way to balance the schedule and establish some sort of fairness, on the field and financially, with an odd number of games.
Rather than mandating a neutral-site game, the NFL decided the 17th game would be an additional inter-conference game, pairing teams that finished in the same place in their respective divisions the previous year.
This season, the formula will pit the NFC East against the AFC East, the NFC West against the AFC North, the NFC South against the AFC South, and the NFC North against the AFC West. This adds a few interesting games, like the Green Bay Packers at the Kansas City Chiefs, but also some random (less attractive) matchups, like the Carolina Panthers vs. Houston Texans.
The AFC team will be the home team for each of these games. NFC clubs will get the ninth home game in 2022.
Side note: While this plan does make practical sense, I wish there had been a way to create something more fun from this 17th game, like an annual rivalry game. For some teams, it would be natural: New York Jets vs. New York Giants (regular-season Snoopy!), Dallas Cowboys vs. Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens vs. the Washington Football Team, Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles or Los Angeles Rams vs. Los Angeles Chargers. That Packers vs. Chiefs game we’re excited to see this year? Give it to us every year as a special treat to midwestern NFL fans. Pair up the Seattle Seahawks with one of their old AFC West rivals. Make up a reason for a rivalry, even: The Who Dat Saints vs. the Who Dey Bengals?
3. Super Bowl moves back a week
The Super Bowl will now be a mid-February tradition, and occasionally could even fall on Presidents Day Weekend. (We’ll have to see how NASCAR will feel about that, when the Super Bowl in 2027 could overlap with the Daytona 500.)
For practical purposes, here’s how the calendar will look: The NFL will continue to open its season the week after Labor Day, with the annual kickoff game (usually hosted by the defending Super Bowl champion) on Thursday night. This year, that game will be played on Sept. 9, likely in Tampa. The final regular-season games will be played on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, followed by the wild-card round a week later. The NFL last season debuted its expanded playoff format, and the 14-team field, with only one team per conference receiving a bye week, will remain in place.
The NFL will keep a bye week on the calendar between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, and leave that open Sunday for the Pro Bowl (which in 2022 will be held in Las Vegas).
4. More international games
As The Athletic’s Dan Kaplan reported last week, the NFL is increasing its inventory of international games, and every NFL team will now be required to play a game outside of the U.S. at least once every eight years.
Many of these international games will now be considered a “neutral site” game, rather than a home game for one of the teams.
That said, teams will be allowed to volunteer for additional international games, and NFL executive Chris Halpin said Tuesday this new agreement won’t, for example, impact the Jaguars’ commitment to playing a game in London each season.
Halpin, the NFL’s executive vice president, chief strategy and growth officer, said the NFL is exploring the possibility of playing games in Germany and South America, in addition to the United Kingdom, Mexico and Canada.
“Our intent would be to service as many fans as possible,” Goodell said.
5. Truncated preseason
The NFL’s big selling point on this expanded schedule is that it’s adding more meaningful games. It was able to ultimately get the 17th game through the collective bargaining process with the NFL Players Association last year because it agreed to shrink the preseason. That is now official, and the exhibition season will include just three games for 30 teams (while two other teams will have a fourth preseason game for the Hall of Fame Game).
Now will the NFLPA try to get the NFL to reduce the preseason even further? The two sides remain engaged in negotiations about what the offseason workout and training camp format will look like. Many veterans hate preseason games (and a growing number of coaches are limiting how much their starters play in any of those games) but it’s hard to see the NFL giving up revenue-generating events again.
By Lindsay Jones Mar 30, 2021
The 17-game NFL schedule is here.
The league’s owners on Tuesday voted to expand the regular season, a move that’s been expected for about a year, ever since the 17-game option was included in the NFL’s new collective bargaining agreement.
It’s not a coincidence that NFL owners on Tuesday also formally approved the league’s new media deals, worth more than $100 billion. These two moves will shape the NFL landscape for at least the next decade, with more games headed overseas and more games available on streaming platforms.
“This gives us more meaningful and quality games that otherwise would not have been scheduled,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.
This year’s schedule should be completed by early May, but for now, let’s look at the most important things to know about the new 17-game slate:
1. The return of fans
We’ll start with a note that, hopefully, applies just to this year, as Goodell is now on the record saying the NFL is planning for fans to return and fill the league’s stadiums to capacity for this new 272-game slate.
A limited number of fans attended slightly more than 100 games in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Goodell declined to say if the league intends to require fans to be vaccinated in order to attend games in person this fall.
But it is clear that vaccinations will be part of the league’s plans to get back to normal.
The league will not require its players or staff to get the vaccine, but Goodell said it would be “encouraged” and the league would use its sizable platform to educate the public and its own personnel about the value of the vaccine.
Whether stadiums are full, empty or something in between won’t be completely up to the NFL, no matter what Goodell is projecting in late March. Teams will still have to comply with state and local ordinances, which still vary across the country.
“All of us in the NFL want to see every one of our fans back,” Goodell said. “Football is not the same without fans, and we expect to have full stadiums in the upcoming season.”
2. An extra inter-conference game
One of the more complicated parts about expanding the schedule to 17 games was figuring out how to add another game, when the league’s previous calendar was built nicely to accommodate a 32-team league, divided evenly into 16-team conferences and four-team divisions. The NFL had to figure out a way to balance the schedule and establish some sort of fairness, on the field and financially, with an odd number of games.
Rather than mandating a neutral-site game, the NFL decided the 17th game would be an additional inter-conference game, pairing teams that finished in the same place in their respective divisions the previous year.
This season, the formula will pit the NFC East against the AFC East, the NFC West against the AFC North, the NFC South against the AFC South, and the NFC North against the AFC West. This adds a few interesting games, like the Green Bay Packers at the Kansas City Chiefs, but also some random (less attractive) matchups, like the Carolina Panthers vs. Houston Texans.
The AFC team will be the home team for each of these games. NFC clubs will get the ninth home game in 2022.
Side note: While this plan does make practical sense, I wish there had been a way to create something more fun from this 17th game, like an annual rivalry game. For some teams, it would be natural: New York Jets vs. New York Giants (regular-season Snoopy!), Dallas Cowboys vs. Houston Texans, Baltimore Ravens vs. the Washington Football Team, Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles or Los Angeles Rams vs. Los Angeles Chargers. That Packers vs. Chiefs game we’re excited to see this year? Give it to us every year as a special treat to midwestern NFL fans. Pair up the Seattle Seahawks with one of their old AFC West rivals. Make up a reason for a rivalry, even: The Who Dat Saints vs. the Who Dey Bengals?
3. Super Bowl moves back a week
The Super Bowl will now be a mid-February tradition, and occasionally could even fall on Presidents Day Weekend. (We’ll have to see how NASCAR will feel about that, when the Super Bowl in 2027 could overlap with the Daytona 500.)
For practical purposes, here’s how the calendar will look: The NFL will continue to open its season the week after Labor Day, with the annual kickoff game (usually hosted by the defending Super Bowl champion) on Thursday night. This year, that game will be played on Sept. 9, likely in Tampa. The final regular-season games will be played on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, followed by the wild-card round a week later. The NFL last season debuted its expanded playoff format, and the 14-team field, with only one team per conference receiving a bye week, will remain in place.
The NFL will keep a bye week on the calendar between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl, and leave that open Sunday for the Pro Bowl (which in 2022 will be held in Las Vegas).
4. More international games
As The Athletic’s Dan Kaplan reported last week, the NFL is increasing its inventory of international games, and every NFL team will now be required to play a game outside of the U.S. at least once every eight years.
Many of these international games will now be considered a “neutral site” game, rather than a home game for one of the teams.
That said, teams will be allowed to volunteer for additional international games, and NFL executive Chris Halpin said Tuesday this new agreement won’t, for example, impact the Jaguars’ commitment to playing a game in London each season.
Halpin, the NFL’s executive vice president, chief strategy and growth officer, said the NFL is exploring the possibility of playing games in Germany and South America, in addition to the United Kingdom, Mexico and Canada.
“Our intent would be to service as many fans as possible,” Goodell said.
5. Truncated preseason
The NFL’s big selling point on this expanded schedule is that it’s adding more meaningful games. It was able to ultimately get the 17th game through the collective bargaining process with the NFL Players Association last year because it agreed to shrink the preseason. That is now official, and the exhibition season will include just three games for 30 teams (while two other teams will have a fourth preseason game for the Hall of Fame Game).
Now will the NFLPA try to get the NFL to reduce the preseason even further? The two sides remain engaged in negotiations about what the offseason workout and training camp format will look like. Many veterans hate preseason games (and a growing number of coaches are limiting how much their starters play in any of those games) but it’s hard to see the NFL giving up revenue-generating events again.
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That sucks.
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Which begs the question: Why so many different ones?
Genghis Khan
The worst version of myself
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I've been mostly trying to wait and see on this because I could see both sides.
But let's be real here.
The evidence against him is way more compelling than this if you subscribe to the "where there's smoke there's fire" theory. Which to a certain extent I do.
But regardless, and I know this is a public opinion war right now especially since Watson is trying to preserve a very lucrative public career, but this argument that you can trot out 18 or a billion therapists vouching for his character is nonsense. I can't imagine it sways anyone with a brain who hasn't already made up his or her mind on what they're going to believe.
If you murder 1 Starbucks barista, I bet you could still find 100 that dealt with you and thought you were a swell guy.
That has exactly zero to do with your interaction with the barista you allegedly murdered.
Given the nature of his profession I'd guess he's seen a hundred different therapists. I don't think anyone is alleging he's harassed every single one.
Sure, the ones he didn't harass don't have anything bad to say. Ok? And?
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Exactly what I've been wondering. When it comes to their bodies, pro athletes normally settle in on 1 or 2 personal trainers, nutritionists, massage therapists, etc, and exclusively work with those select individuals who've earned their trust.
Seems really weird and suspicious for Watson to be linked to so many therapists within the city of Houston.
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Should help cut down on injuries plus coaches can put the foot in the ass of lazy players who don't have the self-discipline to do the right thing during virtual workouts.
Genghis Khan
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Hate it.
Plan9Misfit
Appreciate The Hate
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WGAS?
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