NFLPA President Discusses Possible Expanded Season

With the NFL moving closer and closer to an expansion of the regular season, NFLPA president Kevin Mawae addressed the situation during a Wednesday appearance on Sirius NFL Radio.
“Well, obviously the first thing that comes to mind is what’s in it for us?” Mawae told Adam Schein and Solomon Wilcots of The Sirius Blitz. “If we’re gonna give you two more games, two more games of wear and tear on our bodies, two more games of potential career ending injuries, two more games of concussions, blown out knees, elbows, whatever you wanna call it, then what’s the price you’re willing to pay for us to give that to you? Anytime you add a game onto the regular season, it comes down to a collective bargaining issue as part of the CBA, and there’s a give and take. Do I want to play 18 regular season games? No, not really but again I don’t want to play four pre-season games either. So we’ll figure something out.”
Asked whether he’d prefer 16 regular-season games or only two preseason games, Mawae went outside the box.
“I would rather have 16 regular season games and two preseason games,” Mawae said. “In a perfect world.”
(In a perfect world, I’d like to have a pony. And a cotton candy machine.)
Mawae thinks that coaches already have enough time to determine their roster for the games that count, given the extensive offseason practice schedule.
“You have the argument that, well, the coaches won’t have enough time to evaluate players. Don’t buy it. We have 14 OTA days. If you’re a new coach you have up to five minicamps and most coaches keep their players in town until the middle of July right up until the 10-day dead period before training camp. So I think the biggest issue for players is compensation and potential injury and harm on the field.
“That’s another 120 snaps for myself if you figure you average 60 plays a game and anything can happen. I’m certainly not a big fan of 18 games but, again, if it is something that we can get something significant out of the collective bargaining process, then it’s something we’ll take a look at.”
The chances of the league giving up two preseason games without a corresponding increase in regular-season game are somewhere south of slim, and only a wispy hair north of none. The NFL has played 20 total games for years; in the days of 14 regular-season games, teams played a whopping six exhibition contests.
The union has looked the other way on the issue of contact during offseason workouts because the union realizes that the extra reps in T-shirts and shorts results in less strenuous training camp practices. If the regular season grows by two games and the preseason is cut in half, coaches will likely try to create more situations during training camp that simulate game action.
So apart from whether the players will get a bigger piece of the 59-cent pie for agreeing to two more games in which starters play and two fewer games in which the key players make only cameo appearances, the union would be wise to insist on clear limits to scrimmages and other “live” training camp techniques, and to protect players against any and all contact during offseason practice.