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I see both sides like all of us I absolutely love NFL football. But the more stuff that comes out about the concussions and other stuff the worse it looks. As others said clearly 17 isn't the final move it's going to be 18. Not to totally derail the thread but the reason RB has become such a less important position in the NFL is almost entirely due to the schedule going from 14 to 16 games. Yes RB's can gain more yardage but studies show the average NFL RB can expect to be healthy just under 13.5 games per season, it's the lowest expected average of any position in the NFL, it's 13.3 and the next lowest is 14. So when they added 2 games the position most impacted was RB, if you're lucky enough to play all 16 games you get 2 more games of pounding which increases the odds you get hurt and cut your career short. If they go up to 18 that's going to get worse, the average may stay close to 13 but it's going to mean NFL teams need more RB's so they're going to have to expand the roster to cover that. It's also why FB's got severely reduced, increase the games you need more RB's the most obvious position to skimp on was RB. TE and S are the next 2 spots with the most injuries so teams will need more of those.
2015 study says the average NFL player has a 4.1% chance of injury in every game they play and the average games missed with said injury is 3.1. Over 18 games it means you have to expand rosters(I'm assuming they did not really sure) and you're still going to have more injuries and more serious injuries. Even if you expand rosters what that means is 8-10 years from now there's going to be a bigger pool of guys who have the head injuries, the more guys who play in the games the more will get those injuries.
So yeah it won't be in 5 years but I could see in 20 where there's just so much data that its' just hard to get enough players.
I guess we'll so it obviously pays well and has other fringe benefits but i still feel it's quite likely going to end in my lifetime.
They've been playing an 18 game schedule in the CFL for decades and it's not pitty-pat football.
You'll run out of football players on the same day that you run out of boxers and martial arts fighters - IMO.