18-game schedule might not be so far-fetched after all

INDIANAPOLIS - You don't need to be a doctor or even play one on TV to deduce that expanding the NFL regular season from 16 to 18 games would increase the wear and tear on players' bodies, increase the risk of injury, and shorten careers.

By the same token, you also don't need an MBA from Wharton to understand that adding two more regular-season games would mean a whole lot more revenue for the league, and, in turn, a whole lot more revenue for the players.

Last February, when the owners and players were trying to hammer out a new labor agreement, NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith insisted that an 18-game season was "non-negotiable." Said the health and safety of his players was far more important than the extra money two more regular-season games would put in their pockets.

Yet, when the two sides finally shook hands last summer on a new 10-year labor deal, it included wording that left open the possibility of an 18-game season at some point.

"We agreed in the collective bargaining agreement that we would make that decision with the players," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday during his annual Super Bowl week news conference when asked about going to an 18-game season. "We respect their position on it. We listened during the collective bargaining process and we made a decision that we would do it collectively.

"The first step was to make changes in the health and safety of players and how we train in the offseason, how we train in the regular season. We're going to have to go through a full cycle of that. We're going to have to see what the impact of that is on the game, the quality of the game.

"After we've done that, we'll sit down with the players and decide, is this the right decision to make? We have to do that collectively. We have to do it with a partnership with our players. And we will do that. And we'll reach a good decision."

A day earlier, at the union's annual Super Bowl week news conference, Smith still was singing the same tune he sang last February . . . sort of.

Asked his feelings on an 18-game season, he said, "The health and safety of our players is something we said early on is a non-negotiable issue and that will remain so."

But he also said, "Like anything else, the lesson from the lockout and the labor fight was that it's important to consider everything."

Money can make anything negotiable. At some point soon, the players will weigh a few extra bumps and bruises against the extra revenue two more regular-season games will generate.

The extra revenue will win.

NFL AND CONCUSSIONS

While the more than 200 players who are suing the NFL for allegedly misleading them about the long-term dangers of concussions might disagree, Goodell insisted yesterday that the league really, really cares about the concussion problem.

"There are a lot of unknowns about brain injuries and about the brain itself," Goodell said. "We're all learning. The medical world is learning, the scientific world is learning. The NFL is learning.

"What I'm proud of is that the NFL is leading the way. They are embracing this. They are bringing awareness to this issue. When I was in high school, I suffered a concussion playing baseball. The treatment was simply flashing a flashlight in my eye in the middle of the night.

"What we've done is make this a significant issue. It's a serious injury that needs to be treated seriously. That is the cultural change that we've made. Not just in football. Across all sports. And even beyond sports."

Goodell said the number of concussions in the league was down this season. He said even more significant than the decrease in concussions is the caution the league is using in treating them.

"Five years ago, the average time a player was out from a concussion was half-a-day," he said. "This past year, it was 6 days."

Asked about a recent report that NFL teams were trying to include clauses in contracts that would prevent a player from suing the league over concussions, Goodell neither confirmed nor denied it.

"We have no leaguewide initiative to do that," he said. "I am only aware of the fact that in certain cases, a club and a player may have had individual negotiations [about that]. But there is no leaguewide mandate to do that."

THIS AND THAT

* Goodell announced that the NFL Network will expand its package of Thursday night games from eight to 13 games next season. It will air Thursday night games from Week 2 through Week 15. "This will result in every team appearing in a Thursday football game [there are three games on Thanksgiving]," he said.

* Brian Billick once won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer as his quarterback. Can the Eagles win one with Michael Vick? "Sure they can," said Billick, an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network. "But no one ever has won a championship outside the pocket. And obviously his injuries are a factor. Can you get an entire season out of Michael Vick? Those are two legitimate questions that so far lend itself to the conventional perspective that, no, you can't [win a title with him]. Can it be done? Sure it can. But it just hasn't."

* Bill Belichick isn't an accentuate-the-positives kind of coach. He expects you to do things right. When you don't, well, he can make video review one of the most excruciating experiences of a player's life. "He has a different style of coaching," former Eagles linebacker Tracy White said. "He's more of a perfectionist type. He'll call you out in meetings. You don't want to be that guy that gets put up on the screen. He doesn't cut no corners or pull no punches." How does Belichick's style differ from Andy Reid's? "Coach Reid is aggressive, too," he said. "But he knows what the players should be doing. He lets you police yourself. Bill does the same thing, but he holds everybody accountable. Andy leaves it up to the position coaches to tell you what you did wrong."