The problem with Portland, besides being too close to Seattle, is that the largest stadium is a soccer stadium that only holds 20,000 people. The biggest stadium in the entire state is Autzen, where the Ducks play, and it only holds 54,000 and is 2 hours south of Portland.

Players should receive lifetime health insurance if you played 3 or more years in the league.

Unless you received a mega deal on your 2nd contract

I found this

Using this past season as an example, the 49ers and Ravens would’ve still earned byes as the top seeds. The No. 2 seeds, the Packers and eventual Super Bowl champion Chiefs, would’ve faced the No. 7 seeds, which would’ve been the Rams and Steelers, who didn’t make the postseason in 2019.

Here’s a look at the other teams from recent years that would have made the postseason under the new format.



What could have been…

Under the reported new format for the @NFL Playoffs, these teams would have been the extra #7 seed:

2019: Steelers, Rams
2018: Steelers, Vikings
2017: Ravens, Lions
2016: Titans, Buccaneers
2015: Jets, Falcons
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) February 20, 2020

That bye becomes way more important, do we make that 24 point comeback vs Houston if we had played the week before, do we win the Superbowl vs 9ers who played one less game. I understand there are a lot of hypothetical scenarios out there but you need a perfect regular season without injuries and some luck to get that #1

OK, this is just off of the top of my head so don't kill me for it.

The NFL manages the game scheduling as they do now with a 16 game schedule. The International games in this bucket, so this part should be pretty smooth. Season ticket holders pay for a regular 16 game schedule so no real bump in prices for the 16 game schedule.

Now the 17th Game.

The 17th game is scheduled like a playoff game. You don't really know the two teams until the end of the 16th week of the season. The team in 1st place in the division gets the home field and they play the team in 2nd place in the division. This gives the 2nd place team the opportunity to improve their standing. It rewards the 1st place team by giving them home field advantage. Also maybe teams would not be able to sit starters if it actually had importance of winning division. The 3rd place team gets the home field against the 4th place team in the division. A problem with this is bad team are going to continue to tank. The crowd might be pretty sparse for those games.

This format would help determine a true division winner. If you really want to reward the home teams for these games, the NFL would allow home team to keep all ticket sales for the 17th game or something like that.

Since the Chiefs have pretty much owned their division, not worried about it for them.

Also much like they do stats now. Stats could be kept for 16 game schedule and stats for 17th game are kept by themselves much like post season game stats.

You wouldn't have complaint about the sack record was broken because of the 17 game schedule.

The NFL makes their money off of a 17th game. It's not a scheduling nightmare. Keeps season ticket holders happy with 16 games. It would allow others to buy tickets for that 17th game of course giving season ticket holder preference. It allows a division winner to do well.

Again just throwing this out as a possibility to keep it interesting but not make it a scheduling nightmare. Also this allows some of the 16 game tradition.

Bottom line it allows the NFL to make money and increase TV revenue.

Another way to play this would be instead of the 17th game within Division, the game would be within Conference but still 1st place against 2nd place. Example 1st place AFC East VS 2nd place AFC West. This would really show best teams in Conference as-well-as worst teams in Conference. Just like they do now with rotating the yearly game scheduled, this would be rotated so teams play different Divisions within the Conference.

Problems with it.

Teams that truly have a big win lead would still rest their players for this game.

Would be the "Tank Bowl" for the worst teams.

If you let home team keep ticket sales from the 17th game, it would be worth a few million to them. It would be a reward for 1st place, 16 game winners, as-wel-as 3rd place winners of the first 16 games. The 2nd place team would still be playing for playoffs since they have expanded that. The 4th place team in the division, well who cares about them?

I know there would be some dog games in the last games, but could be some real gems in that 17th game, so TV might be really interested in that game.

Need to play a game in Mother Russia.

Another thought on the 3rd vs 4th place game, which there would be 8, play them in a destination that people would want to go for warmer weather. Florida, Louisiana. Arizona, Nevada, California. People go to bowl games to watch 6-6 teams play.

I like idea of keeping 16 game stats. This way NFL gets another playoff game without calling it a playoff game.

Hate it. Just from the playoff side of things, the product will be even more watered down with more teams getting in the playoffs. Did we really need another game to tell us that Rams, Cowboys, Pitt, Den, Oak, Ind etc., were NOT playoff caliber teams? Because they would have been had 7 gotten in...Terrible for the league. Money grab for owners.

Not a lot of fair scenarios out the for that 17th game either, but tons of money to be made by the owners.

With 14 teams in the playoffs thats damn near half the damn league. I don't like that. Why have the regular season then!!!

It's official.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Wild Card Weekend for the 2020 NFL season now will consist of three games on Saturday, January 9, and three games on Sunday, January 10, 2021. <a href="https://t.co/UsZrrbDj1j">pic.twitter.com/UsZrrbDj1j</a></p>&mdash; Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) <a href="https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1245047327334838276?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

NFL playoffs were perfect. Now they are shit.

I liked being able to root for my team to have a 1 or 2 seed. Now you might know who the 1 seed is and then who really cares if you get the 2 vs 3 vs 4 vs 5 vs 6 vs 7 the bye week was huge.

Teams who are rooting for their team to sneak in the playoffs and get the 7 seed KNOW their team sucks and won't have a real shot at the superbowl.

This is stupid. Add a week 18 to the league, that's fine, but don't add another playoff team.

What? They dont deserve that. They can quit if they dont wanna get hurt.

I agree with this 100% but can't help but think this is a huge win for the Chiefs. If we can field teams like we had last year we'll be the number one seed at least 5 out of the next 10 seasons. I would think if something like this happens the NFL will reconsider what they've done.

****ing stupid ass money grab. Just dumb. THE fans DO NOT want 14 playoff teams, dumbasses

This is to get teams like Dallas into the playoffs

Just make it 8 teams and keep 2 byes

How would that work? 6 teams play and 2 get a week off? Who does the extra wildcard winner play?

The NFL should just replace the leather football with a balloon. Everybody wins and no more injuries/ CTE's.:thumb:

So ****ing stupid.

This. The 12 team format was PERFECT, not a fan. Don't dilute the playoffs. Who wanted to see Duck Hodges throw against our formidable secondary anyway LOL. If they want more money, I like the idea of adding an extra ye week. Adds 3 more primetime games (one more each TNF, SNF, and MNF), plus an extra week in the regular season (and Romo/Nantz and Joe/Troy also get an extra game). More football to watch, more $$$ from the TV packages.
Also, maybe flex a Week 17 game to TNF and MNF? Both featuring two eliminated teams. With the draft and tanking being more popular, plus people just wanting to watch football (and other stuff like stats/records and rivalries on the line), another opportunity for money. Like Donks/Raiders last year (final game as the Oakland Raiders on primetime)? And Bucs/Falcons (the 35-yd big man TD on primetime would have been hilarious). Just my thoughts.

Just think of how many more heartbreaking playoff losses we would have if this had been in effect for the last few decades! Need more of this...

NFL just granted the Cheatriots perpetual access to the playoffs.
No surprise.

This isn't the league trying to help any particular team, it's a money deal - that's it. I havne't liked the idea for a long time, but it is what it is.

Nailed it.

Yep. Just imagine the suspense with nearly half the teams getting nto the playoffs. I know Im gonna be on the edge of my seat when some lame ass 7/8 - win team gets in and plays a 12 win team in round 1 and gets their asses kicked, while the 12 win team sustains injuries and gets ****ed going into the next round...The 6 team format with TWO byes was PERFECT. I really think this is a stepping stone to 8 teams getting in and going back to two teams getting a bye. Cant wait for half the league to make the playoffs. Its going to mean so much. :rolleyes:

How would you give 2 teams a bye with 8 in? The current format is perfect. They are messing it up.

Its two Fn games. Quit your crying. The 17 game season does suck though.

Carl Peterson lobbied for expanded playoffs for many years in an attempt to get the Chiefs into the playoffs more often. Glad if failed then, sucks that it is being implemented now.

Agreed on the regular season schedule. It certainly was a thing of beauty in how balanced it was. Now, not nearly so much!

If it works, don't fix it.

I have advocated for a while now that if the NFL insists on growing the international games there is an efficient way to do it and it could work well with this stupid expanded schedule:

Teams play a normal game on Sunday
The next week if their bye
International game on Thursday night
Next game for the teams is the following Sunday

This provides a week and a half between games making the Thursday night games "safer" for the players and also allow time for the travel, etc out of the country.

In the current scenario, make these the "17th" game on the schedule against whatever team you would not have played in the previous schedule. This balances the new schedule as well as possible and allows the NFL to continue to pursue games outside of the US.

There will be 8 teams in the playoffs soon enough. This is a stepping stone to that outcome.

Boomers getting angry things are changing.All good things must come to an end.

:spock: I'm 38, and this whole thing is dumb.

Hate it. Hate everything about it.

.. but it will bring more football so I'm sure my bitching will be short-lived.