Should Super Bowl Be Moved To President’s Day Weekend?
Jul 12, 2019, 4:29 PM | Updated: 4:58 pm
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – For years NFL fans have petitioned with no avail to make the Monday after the Super Bowl a national holiday making it so many people would get the day off work. What if that could become a reality in the near future?
It is being reported that the NFL owners are proposing an 18-game regular season schedule. This is amazing for a number of reasons, according to Scott Mitchell and Alex Kirry of KSL’s UnRivaled, and it starts with more meaningful football achieved by removing two weeks of the “meaningless” preseason football.
A big revelation the duo came to is that if the NFL does add two more regular season games that means the season gets pushed further in the calendar year and deeper into February.
Tomorrow should be a holiday.
— Scott Mitchell (@19scottmitchell) February 4, 2019
Those two extra weeks are great for everyone who thinks the day after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday because it could actually happen – well sort of. The big game would be played the day before President’s Day giving lots of people the day off work.
“This is the way to make it a national holiday. You extend the season two more weeks, including the Super Bowl, and being able to put it on President’s Day weekend,” Kirry said on KSL’s Unrivaled. “The problem with this would be that it would no longer be considered President’s Day anymore but it would be Super Bowl Monday.”
Mitchell provided another option to achieve the same result – add an extra bye week, extend the season one more week and have the game in mid-February.
Impact on Players
The players would also like more games because it would mean more pay for the two games, predicted Mitchell and Kirry. In the preseason, the players make significantly less than a game check.
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As a former NFL quarterback, Mitchell liked the idea because it helps players not only financially but he said player safety will not be impacted all that much because recent rule changes have resulted in less contact.
“The concern about all of this from the players is that they are exposing the players to more injuries, but the game is so safe now and the players don’t hit each other at all and they don’t practice anymore. It is basically flag football. Instead of getting paid for preseason games – you are eliminating the last two preseason games and there are only two – during that as a player you are making about $1,500 a player.”
Mitchell said an argument can be made that the preseason is meaningless at four weeks. There is no need for players to practice for a month when they are in prime shape 52 weeks a year.
NFL year round if it were up to me. https://t.co/pQ1JMtgPeK
— Scott Mitchell (@19scottmitchell) March 7, 2019
“You are still going to practice and play in preseason games anyway, so the risk is not that much greater but the reward in so many ways far exceeds that,” Mitchell continued. “The coaches know who is going to make the teams it is not any surprise, the players are in shape year-round and they do not need that much time. A month of practice and two weeks of playing games is more than enough time to get ready for the NFL season.”
Overall, this seems like a win-win for everyone, Mitchell and Kirry agreed. The athletes and owners make a lot more money and the fans get a few extra weeks of football and a de facto national holiday the Monday after the Super Bowl.
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