The other groups out there, not including me, in this discussion include the players, owners, other fans, coaches, sports writers, and the NFL executives. From the perspective of the owners, team executives, and NFL executives they say that this schedule change is good for the NFL. They say that by adding two extra games it will increase their revenue and income. They also believe that the fans will love the extra two games. Fans love football and two more games will just make it better in the opinion of the owners and the executives. I know personally once the Super Bowl is over it is a long wait until the start of the next season and the NBA or MLB does not fill that void for me left by the end of football season. This idea that fans would want more games at first seems logical. I just hope they don’t expand it too much so that they end up turning this into the NBA or MLB where their seasons seem to last almost the entire year. The other part that the owners and executives want deals with the collective bargaining agreement. The old collective bargaining agreement expires in May. They want to expand the season to 18 games and get the players to agree to receive less money in the new agreement. This is where the sports writing community sees their argument is fatally flawed. Why would the owners and executives think that players would want to take more risk with the two extra games and receive less money for that? Now most people on all sides say that this change is inevitable as well. They say that the owners just have too much power and the players can not block this agreement. Most of the writers and people in the writing community believe that the fans have little to no impact on this and the players don’t have much more power to stop this schedule change. The players also get a say in this however and almost all of the players have said that for health reasons they would rather not play two extra games. A lot of them have pointed out that the NFL is currently focusing on protecting the players and players’ health but then wants to add two extra games. The players see this as a contradiction to the NFL executives’ new push for better safety and player health. This is where the battle lines are drawn between the owners and the players. They each have different and opposing views but one can hope they can reach an agreement so there will not be a lockout next season.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Reaction to an Article
The other day I read an article by Dave Wischnowsky titled “Wisch: 18 Game Schedule Puts Postseason in Jeopardy.” The author, Dave Wischnowsky, is very upfront with his own views on this topic of the debate over the proposed 18 game schedule change for the NFL. He says at the end of the article “I’d vote for maintaining status quo.” This is his pitch to the public to keep the schedule as it is. He is entering this larger argument that I myself have entered with this blog about the NFL’s proposed schedule change to 18 games. This proposed schedule change is what people are debating and evaluating to see whether it is worth the costs. There is lots of discussion from all sides including the owners, the NFL executives, players, fans, and the sports writing community. Most people except the owners and NFL executives are highly opposed to this addition of two extra games. To make his point Dave Wischnowsky brings up facts on injuries to give his argument some credibility as why he disagrees with the change. Dave Wischnowsky states as evidence that according to the NFL on average almost three players are injured every game and that by adding two more games if you do the math there would be approximately 190 new injuries created by the two extra games combined. These are compelling facts. I do wonder about the validity of these facts though do they just mean when play is stopped for an injury timeout or if the player is hurt and cannot participate in either practices, games, or just can’t return to the game. I also wonder what the average lengths of these injuries are because being injured for two days is a lot different than two months. The answers to these questions could really either support this figure or undermine it. He makes the point that these injuries could be to top players and that this would lead to games being less interesting and the postseason could be effected greatly by the best players’ inability to play. I also question Dave Wischnowsky statement of “I don’t have a vote.” This is where I feel he has gone in the wrong direction he does indirectly have a vote. This vote is in monetary form however. In economics you learn that companies produce the items we want without us telling them. We indirectly tell them what to produce by signaling with our willingness to pay for things. With ticket sales along with viewers at home we control the amount of money the NFL receives. Money is the hinge on what this proposal swings. The owners are expecting more money by gaining more ticket sales and more money from the advertising revenue through network deals. If less people watch because these injuries sideline the best players we can signal the addition of two more games is not profitable. If it’s not profitable the league will not be willing to expand the games or continue this expansion if it is done. Now I discussed this in the past tense as if this change had occurred. If we do like Dave Wischnowsky suggests and we wine about it then this 18 game schedule is inevitable. On the other hand we can signal now that we as fans will not be willing to spend our money on extra watered down games. We are in the moment that this change is being discussed the next few months are critical with the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement coming shortly in May. This is why we need to voice our opinions with our wallets to which side of this debate we subscribe to because the sole motivation for this schedule expansion is money. Below I have attached the link to this article if anyone would like to read it and voice your own thought or opinions on it feel free to do so.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Why Just Another Sports Blog?
Like I said in my background, I love sports especially football. I am really interested in things that are being discussed concerning the sport I love the most. Experience wise I personally have no NFL experience, but a lot of people who write about topics don’t always have experience in their subject either. I don’t feel that my lack of personal experience with the NFL will greatly affect my ability to learn and analyze this subject. I do have a desire to know more concerning the recent discussion to an expansion to an 18 game regular season NFL schedule. I will use my investigative powers and some personal experiences to gain perspective on this discussion to try and draw my own conclusions about this topic of discourse. Now I know this subject may bore some readers and others might say why would you spend your time on this issue rather than a serious subject. To them I say football can be a release from the hectic life for some people along with the fact that the business of football is a several billion dollar business annually. That’s a lot of money and that means to someone out there it’s very important. Initially on the subject I tend to side with the players that this expansion would hurt the NFL. However, I want to learn the advantages and disadvantages from all the concerned parties’ not just from the players or the owners. To everyone who will read this I hope I can inform people on the pros and cons of this impending decision. Through this blog I want to achieve a better understanding on the schedule expansion and hopefully I myself will reach a more defined opinion along with influencing others to pick a side as well. There are millions of football fans across the globe and we get an opportunity to influence this decision since the fans control the money that comes from tickets sales and indirectly the advertising during games. Ultimately the fans are the reason the players are out there on Sundays that makes the fans a critical factor in this decision.
Me, Myself, and I
My name is Josh Winks and I am from just outside Lynchburg, Virginia. I played high school football all four years at Jefferson Forest High School. I was never the star player on the team but I played with some talented guys and talented coaches. I have a passion for almost all sports but my favorite has to be football. I have watched football ever since I was a little kid. Even though I am attending college to receive a degree in management and hopefully continue on to law school I would like to one day coach some kind of football team. Other types of hobbies I enjoy doing are hiking, fishing, kayaking, and camping. I really enjoy the outdoors especially the area that I call home boasts the Blue Ridge Mountains that are just about 30 minutes away from my home. Other basic stuff about me my favorite color is red, I was born in the July, my favorite NFL team is the Philadelphia Eagles, and my new favorite player is the embattled Michael Vick. Just a fun fact about me is I hate watermelon with a passion, it completely repulses me and you will never hear me mention it ever again.
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