OPINION

By Vinnie Iyer

updated 6:04 p.m. ET May 23, 2009

The NFL has become the Terminator of American professional sports. It will not stop until it absolutely dominates the planet.

Already with the Super Bowl pushed back to February, free agency and the draft combining to become a two-month monster and the constant offseason stream of news coming out of team camps, the NFL has become a virtual year-round sport. It also helps that Brett Favre and Michael Vick do their best to keep the league in the daily headlines.

So it makes sense that one of the priorities on commissioner Roger Goodell's current agenda is expanding the regular season. He wants to replace one or two games of the preseason schedule with one or two games that count in the standings and push the regular-season total to 17 or 18.

Considering the league heads have yet to conduct serious discussions with the players, no rulings on the matter were made during this week's spring owners meeting. The NFL plans to take time with the big decision because there are enough reasons to proceed with caution.

"I think we have tried to look at this from every different perspective because you want to know the intended consequences and the unintended consequences," Goodell said during the meetings. "Whenever you are dealing with the quality of the game, that's a key factor. We want to make sure we don't miss anything."

Before the league goes through with it, there are few potential negatives the league must consider:

Overextending the players
This is the most important consequence. The more games that count, the greater the chance for injury. The NFL has already evolved into a grueling full year for players, from offseason conditioning programs to minicamps to training camp. For a player who makes it to a Super Bowl, there are 23 or 24 weeks of action, including preseason games.

"It's quite a few games already, plus everything else," said Bills defensive end Aaron Schobel, who is coming off a major foot injury that limited him to five games last season. "Just taking out the two preseason games and sticking with the 16 games would be my vote."

The extra wear and tear caused by a longer regular season would add up over time and potentially reduce the length of careers. The aftereffects of playing pro football are already a hot-button issue; this wouldn't help.

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Of course, negotiating benefits for retired players is the responsibility of the NFL Players Association. With a new, strong leader in DeMaurice Smith and serious collective bargaining issues to be hammered out, this may be the wrong time for the league to ask more from the players.

Disrupting a good formula
In the current scheduling format, teams in the same division share 14 common games. The two additional matchups are intraconference games determined by the previous year's standings -- the only built-in parity device beyond the salary cap.

If the schedule expands by two games, chances are the two intraconference contests based on standings would be eliminated and the league would add four more interconference games. Gone would be the slight parity boost to lesser teams and the chance to see the conference's consistently elite teams take on fellow first-place finishers year after year.

The NFL is currently in a good scheduling position based on multiples of 4. There are four teams in each division, 8 total divisions, 16 total games per team, 32 total teams and 256 total games per season. If the schedule goes to 17 or 18 games, it would throw off a good numerical balance.

Slowing momentum before the playoffs
The complaint about preseason action is that the best players don't play while fans pay regular-season prices. The same could happen with an expanded schedule in January.

With two more games, the league's best teams will keep winning and distancing themselves from the pack. So instead of one or two meaningless games at the end of the season, there could easily be three or four.

Sixteen games are the right amount to keep most teams in the playoff race throughout the regular season -- and the right amount to keep the regular season from being watered down.

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In the current format, the steam of building a strong playoff-worthy record in December carries over nicely to January. With the two extra games, there's potential for a dip in momentum rather than a steady rise heading into the playoffs.

Overextending the fans
The NFL has a great relationship with its fans, whether they are drawn to the game by rooting interests or fantasy football. They invest plenty of time and money in the league, regardless of the date on the calendar.

It has been more than three decades since the NFL changed the length of the regular season (from 14 to 16 in 1978), and there is really no need to expand. The league doesn't need to worry about diminishing returns anytime soon.

The point is, the NFL has proved it can command the attention of sports fans all the time. Now the danger is oversaturation.

The NFL is an unquestioned juggernaut, and expanding the schedule won't necessarily expand its might. The league needs to understand it's not worth messing with an already full slate.

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