NFL Adding More Games and Playoff Teams Next Season?
For whatever reason, the NFL loves to change rules and add things every single season. That's how it feels from my perspective, at least.
Yesterday, ESPN reported that NFL owners want to expand the regular season from 16 to 17 games and add an additional team from each conference to the postseason, bringing the total number of playoff teams to 14.
Under the new postseason arrangement, which would have to be finalized through "collective bargaining with the NFL Players Association", only one team per conference would have a first-round bye, making wild-card weekend even more wild than ever.
How would that change the landscape of the NFL and post season? If the new format had been in place last season, the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers would have made the playoffs. I'm not sure we needed to see either of those teams in the post season, but I'm sure their fans would have loved it. Give more players and more fans hope for chances at a Super Bowl. Kind of fun, honestly.
Do we need an extra game per season or two more teams in the playoffs? Probably not. But I wouldn't be mad at having one extra Sunday with an excuse to drink Trulys or bottomless mimosas at 11am.