Do The NFL’s Fans REALLY Want An Eighteen Game Season?

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If the responses Roger Goodell is getting at NBC Sports today are any indication of the responses across the nation, Roger may already be regretting his annual “State of the League” press conference.

To put it bluntly, he’s getting his “butt kicked” by the fans for his “interpretation” of what the fans want.

The NBC article is almost irrelevant, what is truly amazing is fan response to it, and it’s overwhelmingly against an 18 game season and against Roger personally.

It seems to be much more than blaming “the messenger for the message”. Nope. The fans rightly see him as the “Leader of the NFL”, and many are being quite vocal at denouncing his leadership or the lack thereof.

[i]The “chickens are slowly starting to come home to roost”.[/i]

There’s more to this than meets the eye; you would have to be familiar with the fan base and comment base at NBC Sports to really grasp the significance of this minor “fan rebellion”.

The “fan commenting base” at NBC sports  for months has been overwhelmingly on the owners side and vehemently opposed to fans who support the players.

There have even been articles written about that very issue by NBC Sports and others. Phrases have been used like “rabid and fanatical support of owners”, and “attacking fans friendly to the players like wild dogs”.

It has even been written at least twice that the NFL or it’s employees have been suspected of “seeding comments” at NBC Sports to influence fan thinking.

The NFL itself has even felt pressured to deny the claim. Why is any of that relevant tonight? Because the 18 game issue is a major issue with the owners.

No doubt support at NBC Sports was expected to run true to form on this latest article, with the “thumbs-down ratio” 4 to 1 in favor of the owners position for an 18 game season.

That CLEARLY didn’t happen today. The “thumbs-down ratio” is 10 to 1 against both Roger Goodell and the owner’s claims that the fans want an 18 game season.

This time the fans stood together and ignored their differences about the owner/players issue. I’m impressed.

Is this the first clear sign that the fans are “fed-the-hell up” with delays on getting football back on track? This writer thinks so. I may be supported in that belief in the near future, and may be proven right in the long run.

The fan’s responses varied, but not by much, not as much as the divide between the owners and players.

At issue was the headline first: [b]”Roger Goodell: 18-game season is what fans want”[/b]. That pretty much resulted in a resounding “Hell no”.

Then Roger said: “it was interest from the fans that made him and the majority of league owners decide to push for an 18-game season.” That pretty much was responded to with “Bull-frog!” (well, not in those words but close, LOL)

Then Roger said: ““The fans have clearly stated that they don’t like the preseason.” That was pretty much a misrepresentation of what they said, and they said as much.

Some thought 4 games was too long, but not that 2 needed to be added to the regular season games.

The perceived hypocrisy of touting concern for player safety one week, then advocating 18 regular season games the next was duly noted by the fans as well.

The mention of the AP poll near the end that clearly indicated that Roger’s claim was a load of “horse-feathers” tended to add fuel the “fan fire”, as it were.

Me? I’m glad the fans finally stood up together with one voice. I hope they do it more often. For a few good laughs use this link to see what the fans had to say to the “Comish”.