When you’re 5 or 6 years old and your parents sign you up for peewee football, they sign a waiver that claims there could be injury and/or even death.

When you hit high school and you decide to play football, you sign a waiver telling you of the harm, injury, and even death involved.

If/When you decide to play college football, SAME THING.

These guys play a game for usually more money in one season than most people will make in their working lifetime. These guys have mostly been playing since peewee’s, they KNOW the dangers of playing football and they do it willingly, Why do you people CARE that players are getting concussions/injuries ? They do it voluntarily. If I worked for a steele mill and knew that a vat of molten liquid metal was dangerous and could kill me, and I got injured or killed anyway, Would you people care ? Why aren’t you protesting police stations or the oil industry ? Those are dangerous, voluntary jobs too !

STOP CHARGING SEASON TICKET HOLDERS FULL PRICE FOR PRESEASON (read: practice) GAMES.

There is no reason for doing it, the owners do it just because they can. And it’s a deterrent to having Season Tickets.

Half the price of the preseason tickets and Season Ticket holders would be fine with it and this would go away.

(A FORMER – 43 years – Season Ticket holder.. although this was only one of my reasons.. the big one was that Cincinnati has a horrible owner)

Why? Because at the cost of tickets, season ticket holders don’t want to be charged top price for meaningless games, and owners don’t want to lose money.

Honestly, while I respect Peter King’s analysis of games on the field, his take on events off the field, along with his occassional tangent into politics, make me question his real world intelligence. Remember, this is the same guy that thought John Edwards would make a good President.

I know it’s conventional wisdom, in the light of Junior Seau’s suicide, to think that the NFL needs to dial back it’s product. However, that thought process exists only amongst the media. Americans love the NFL, and they want more of it. Roger Goodell, to his credit, understands that far better than Peter King.

I can’t help but wonder if this wasn’t posted here just because King also works for NBC. Otherwise, it’s just another comment in another article.

This is ridiculous….the players are NOT playing harder in pre-season games, sorry!

Sorry, I’m not that concerned about the players position when I’m paying $140 per seat plus a parking pass ($25) for tickets to a pre-season game that I can’t give away for free.

I don’t need 18 games, but give me something worth paying for!

I know that only hardcore fans will appreciate scrimmages than the casual fan, but if we’re talking about player safety, preserving the current number of games, and continue bringing in revenue, having at least two scrimmages is the only solution that makes any sense.

Merrill Hoge is going to go on a massive rant about you spreading misinformation!

It’s time.

Why not give every team 2-3 bye weeks…and extend the season by 2 weeks? The owners get 2 extra weeks of TV revenues…the fans enjoy a longer season…and the the ripoff called preseason gets trimmed down to a more practical 2 games.

Why doesn’t the league have a minor system with affiliated teams (San Antonio with Texans, Birmingham with Falcons, Vancouver with Seahawks, etc) where a team can send a Blaine Gabbert or Mark Sanchez to develop for a year, adjust to professional football life or rehab back to health?

With this minor league system in place, you could take the four preseason games and play them as mixed-squad games in the minors. For instance, the Seahawks & Vancouver rosters versus the Bills & Toronto team. Interest in the minor teams would soar locally, the players would enjoy the change of atmosphere, and you could keep the shenanigans that associate with the preseason as it is by mixing the minors and the NFL rosters.

When I pay to see any sporting event live I expect to see the stars, but in every sport the stars take nights off. A-rod does not play every game in baseball season, Crosby does not play every game in hockey season, and LeBraun does not play every game in the basketball season. I would think if a survey was done, most “true fans” that attend a game would rather see their team win with a backup playing then lose with a starter playing.

Go to the 18 game schedules. Mandate that players have to sit 2 games between game 4 and game 14. Also mandate that players have to miss on road and one home game. Also mandate that games missed due to injury COUNT towards the 2 games off. Drop the preseason to 2 games. 1st one is just rookies and anyone that was not on the team last year. The 2nd is full squad.

We all know it comes down to money. How much will the extra game make, how much of that will go to the players and owners, and how much can the NFL sell the TV rights for.

Also…. the extra home game that each team would get should NOT be included in the season ticket package. This would open up the possibility for fans that can’t get tickets to actually get tickets and see a game live.

They could cut one pre-season game, start the regular season a week earlier, and add a second bye week.

This would give the NFL additional revenue, cut player activity by one week, and keep the number of regular season games the same.

It could be spun as a player safety benefit as well, allow knicked up players a bye week to help heal up.

If the NFL really is concerned about safety, they need to bump the 53 man roster to 60 or 70… (and the salary cap along with it).. but that’d cut into profits.