If you think the NFL preseason is too long, then you and Roger Goodell have something in common.
The NFL commissioner spoke to a group of New York Giants season ticket holders Monday at a fan forum at MetLife Stadium and said he’d like to see the preseason shortened to three games, or possibly two. In fact, Goodell said it’s a common complaint.
“When I go around to fans, that’s maybe the No. 1 thing I hear,” Goodell said, per Newsday. “The NFL should do things to the highest possible standards. Preseason games are not that.”
Goodell knows the league needs preseason games so players can prepare before real game action starts but said coaches agree that four is too many.
“There’s value to them, building a team, evaluating players,” Goodell said. “But there are other ways of doing that. I think we could do it in three. Almost every coach has agreed we could get done what we need to in three games.”
The issue, however, is whether Goodell would want a longer regular season as a result. The 2011 collective bargaining agreement gave the NFL the right to shorten the preseason without a vote, and it’s likely the league thought if it cut those games in half, players would ask for two more regular season games. That obviously hasn’t happened, and it probably won’t now that there are so many more studies about brain trauma from football.
Either way, Goodell said the league would communicate with the NFL Players Association about any change to the schedule.
“Any change in the (overall game) structure, we said that we would collectively bargain,” Goodell said.
Thumbnail photo via Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports Images
