Bill Polian believes it’s only a matter of time before the NFL goes to an 18-game schedule.
“The short answer is that it’s a fait accompli, I’m afraid,” the Indianapolis Colts president said on his radio show.
This is, for a variety of reasons, a terrible idea and very clearly a play for the owners to make more money while the players suffer. Polian is against the plan and wishes there was more dialogue.
“I think that the owners, and principally the commissioner, have decided that it’s the way to go, and so the debate, such as it was, is over. I’ve heard recently, and I’m sorry that this didn’t get more coverage earlier, some really, really interesting commentary on it. … I wish some of that dialogue had taken place earlier.”
If only he could have done something.
Oh wait, he could. Polian is a long time member of the NFL competition committee and is now the chairman. In that capacity, he backed the decision to switch to 18 games. Now, faced with the growing reality that it’s a bad idea, he’s changing his mind and using the press to make himself look good.
It’s easy to play the morality card after the fact, Mr. P., but much harder to do it when the decisions are actually getting made.