Greed trumps good sense, health in push for 18-game seasons

New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees isn't just a talented player. He's a smart man who recently demonstrated a more knowledgeable view of what an 18-game season will do to the bodies and minds of players than the NFL commissioner and legion of owners combined.

"There is going to be a lot of discussion about that," Brees said of the impending season expansion. "The only thing I am going to say about that is do you know the toll that [it would] take on [a] guy's body? The season, being 16 games, is already very long. As you look at it, it's not just a matter of adding two more games, adding two more paychecks, but you need to look at salary, how does it affect medical benefits post-career, and how does it affect offseason and preseason.

With two preseason games, Drew Brees would spend less time on the sideline and more time on the field in the line of fire. (AP)

"When you talk about adding games, you have to talk about what kind of benefit are the players getting. I can tell you this. I already know a lot of guys feel this way. If you ask these linemen and everybody else how their body is feeling at the end of a season, they are beat up. It takes them months to get back healthy again. You talk about adding two more meaningful games. That takes years off guy's careers and probably takes years off of their lives, too."

Takes years off their lives. ...

And he's a quarterback saying this.

An 18-game season is upon us. It's going to happen. Goody. Just what the NFL needs: an even larger generation of concussed, brain-damaged and crippled ex-players.

That's the easily predictable outcome of what will be one of the most needless money grabs in recent sports history. The upcoming expansion is all about -- as Randy Moss might say -- straight cash, homey.

Make no mistake: the players don't want this. They know. They know that a line must finally be drawn somewhere. Even the hardest of the hard-headed head knockers understands an expansion of just two games is a legitimate threat to how they live their lives once football is done.

"A regular-season game and a preseason game intensity-wise doesn't even compare," said Miami quarterback Chad Pennington. "For the starting center, the starting quarterback, the starters are getting 60-65 plays in a regular-season game. In a preseason game the most they'll ever get is 35. So the toll on your body is totally different. Those two extra games make a huge difference.

"... The longer you're out there playing, the more your body breaks down," said Chicago tight end Desmond Clark. "When you get into December, you're like walking zombies. You can't feel your joints."

The NFL contends that by cutting two preseason games the number of contests would ostensibly be the same, but Brees and many other players know that isn't exactly accurate.

The effect of two more regular-season games on the bodies of players will be drastic and isn't as simple as extra games equal more injuries. More games will equal more debilitating injuries. We're already seeing clear proof that brain chemistry becomes like soup after years of 16-game seasons. So what will happen when two more contests are added?

All just to make more money when the NFL already makes plenty.

Once implemented, this is how the 18-game season will work:

It will begin in the offseason. The union will attempt to limit the amount of mandated minicamps and workouts but coaches will do what they want and players will feel pressured to participate in whatever the coach dictates. Why will this happen? Because it happens now.

Once preseason begins, players will no longer cruise as they currently do. In San Francisco, Frank Gore has literally played two snaps in preseason games. Other stars have played a total of a few quarters. In the 18-game supersized monstrosity, there are two fewer preseason games and coaches will likely play their starters in most if not all of them and the intensity will be game-like. The limited number of preseason snaps would force this.

Playing in all of those series -- at near-game velocity -- will begin to completely change the level of punishment players take before the season even starts.

Then comes the season.

"Sixteen games are enough," Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said. "I mean, you're talking to someone who has been in this business for 15 years. We're not automobiles. We're not machines. We're humans."

"This is going to shorten careers," said former NFL player Doug Flutie. "From a player's perspective, it's going to beat you up. It's a long season as it is and there are no days off. ... You're going to see more injuries toward the end of the year, a time when a lot of players take a week off to get healthy for the playoffs. [Now] you're still playing a couple of games. From a player's perspective, I don't like it."

But it's going to happen because NFL owners aren't content with earning billions. They want more billions even if doing so causes the minds of players to turn into scrambled eggs.

Straight cash, homey.