Owners Will Discuss Adding a 17th Regular Season NFL Game

This morning, FanHouse's Michael David Smith wrote that NFL owners had unanimously agreed to opt out of the current labor deal. This won't mean much over the next few seasons, but come 2011, we could all be pulling for a bunch of scabs (and who knows, maybe that will be the break Quincy Carter needs).

Additionally, the owners also have plans to discuss the possibility of adding an additional regular season game to the schedule, an idea that's been floating around for a few years now. From the Washington Post's Mark Maske:

The preseason probably would be shortened by a game to compensate, Goodell said. Goodell said the idea remains in its formative stages and the league is not yet ready to present a proposal to the union, which would have to ratify such a change to the schedule format.

I could go either way on this; players are forever lamenting the length of the preseason, so swapping a game that means absolutely nothing for one that has postseason implications seems like a swell idea. There are still issues to iron out, though; presumably, players are more likely to get injured as the season progress, probability being what it is. And unlike the preseason, when starters seldom see more than a handful of snaps, there's also a concern that teams will be physically spent by the time the playoffs roll around.

Of course, money has a funny way of altering one's perspective, and I suspect that if the owners want a 17th regular season game, they'll figure out a way for everybody to make a few bucks off it.