Chad Brown on Extending NFL Schedule

During his weekly football notes column in the Boston Globe, a must-read by the way, Mike Reiss catches up with former Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots linebacker Chad Brown to get the former Pro Bowler's thoughts on the NFL's intention to extend the regular season to as many as 18 games.

"From a player's perspective, I would just say that at the end of the 16-game season, you're just done," Brown said. "Even if you do make it to the playoffs, you're just charging through based on your passion and love for the game, because your body has given up on you at that point. Now to add two more games to that?

"It's difficult to even explain but now that I'm out of the game, and I watch, I find it hard for me to believe I used to do that for 15 seasons.

"People compare the collisions to car crashes, but I don't think that even explains it because of the repetitive nature of them - from practices, games, training camps. The human body only has so many football games or plays in it. If you add two more regular-season, full-speed games, it's going to take a toll on guys."

Preliminary league plans for extending the regular season involve shortening the pre-season to two games, keeping the minimum number of games the players will be asked to play at 20. However, even the most casual of NFL fan knows that veterans play very little in the first and final pre-season game.

Would these veterans play at all in the two pre-season games? Are two pre-season games enough time for players and personnel executives to evaluate those players scratching and clawing for roster spots?

While a player like Seahawks running back Justin Forsett only needed two games to show he belonged on the 53-man roster last September, without a four-game pre-season, it's possible that quarterback Matt Cassel wouldn't have cracked New England’s roster. Which means Cassel might not have had the opportunity to step in when Tom Brady was lost for the season or had the breakout season that resulted in a guaranteed base salary of $14.65 million dollars for 2009.

The league also unveiled a study about player injuries to support their cause, which Reiss rebuffs in his column. (And if anyone would know about how NFL teams manipulate the injury reports, it would be someone who covers the Patriots.)

No word on when the NFL owners will actually vote on this issue, but those NFL owners and fans that support an 18-game regular season should be careful about they wish for. While more meaningful football games sounds good in theory, a longer regular season will lead to more injuries, which in the short-term would diminish the product, and over the long-term, will reduce the length of what are already short careers.