More games? What are they thinking?

The NFL is currently holding their Owner's Meetings to discuss many issues regarding rules, schedules and labour.

One of the many things that has come up thusfar is overtime rules. It seems they will not be making any changes, but some owners want to switch to the college system where each teams gets a chance to answer a touchdown. I think this is foolish. The current overtime system has been in place forever, and there has never been any qualms with it in the past. Until the Super Bowl gets won in overtime, I don't think this should even be brought up.

The bigger issue has been the number of regular season games played. Some owners like the current 16 game schedule. Some people want to remove some of the preseason games to make a longer regular season. Additional bye weeks have also been brought up for the longer schedules.

This is all ridiculous. The 16-game schedule has been in place for a long time, and again, there is no need for change. Maybe I just hate change, but I feel these moves would be bad for the sport.

First, if you take away some preseason games, it will take away from the time coaches have to evaluate players. Yes, training camp will still be in place, but you want to see your young talent in games, to see how they work and react. If they take away two of these exhibition games, it would take away many of the young stars that have developed in the preseason.

Second, if they only add one regular season game, that would mean one less home game for half the teams. This would cause problems between owners, as some teams would make more money. I just think the current system should stay in place.

As a fan, I would love to see some games added to the current schedules, but I wouldn't want these to take the place of preseason games. I just think the development and analysis that goes into these games would be too valueable to get rid of.

Couple all of this with NFL Europe going under a year ago and Arena Football down this year, and where are teams supposed to develop their players? There is no "farm teams" to send players to. Maybe it is time the NFL affiliates itself with semi-pro leagues to forma scenario like hockey or baseball to have developmental leagues.

Since the game was so exciting last year, they are basically spending this week searching for the most ridiculous things to change, just so they aren't sitting around doing nothing.