Extending the NFL Season from 16 games to 18 games. Good idea, or bad idea?

Since I do not know if we have really talked about this yet, and there is still about 30 days until Training Camp starts up again and we aren't getting much news around here anyway besides the same stories about Leinart being a bust who won't even will 5 or 6 games in 2010 day in and day out.

So, here is something to discuss, and if you want to read of on some of the debate, ESPN has two of their bloggers debating it on the home page. And now I'll argue my case.

I, like most of us would love to see more Football. But the thing I am most worried about with the "Expanded Season" is that the quality of the games we see on Sundays will go down, and that by the time the Season ends there will be a ton of backups taking over for the Starters who have broken down, and the Playoffs will also suffer because of that.

Along with that, even though Preseason games can be boring, I don't think taking out two of them is a good idea. We have seen over the last couple of years how important those games are, and over the last couple of years we have seen long shots making the roster by how they played in the Preseason, like LaRod Stephens-Howling's [7th Round Draft Pick] impressive game returning kicks against the Chargers, or Reggie Walker [Undrafted Free Agent] against the Broncos. Some people may say that it is just watching vanilla game plans where teams aren't even trying to win and a bunch of people who won't even make the team will be on the field most of the time, but it is very important for evaluating your players along with shaking off the rust from all of the people that will be the starters during the Regular Season, and two games may not be enough for that.

Several of the statistical records would also become meaningless, which albeit a minor thing is important to me since I look at the 16 game records as the real ones and they would be broken every year after this. With all of the rule changes some passing records are not as impressive anymore, but Dan Marino throwing for 5,000 yards in the 80s has stuck, and with an 18 game season that record would be broken every year. Chris Johnson rushing for 2,000 yards is also special, but it will also become a lot easier to do.

I think that the setup the NFL has now is perfect, 16 games that all mean something along with the 4 Preseaon games. Even though people will get injured and worn out during the season, 16 games is enough games to get them through the season relatively healthy, and expanding it will just provide so many more opportunities to get hurt [and like the article I posted said, there are already a few people that are gone for the entire season, that number would skyrocket with 2 more games]. Lets be honest, this is nothing more than an attempt for the NFL to make more money by saying that the "fans" want more meaningful games and the Season Ticket Holders don't want to pay for the Preseason games even though the NFL forces Season Ticket holders to buy Preseason tickets with that package. If they merely made the Season Ticket package only include the Regular Season, or have an option to get Preseason tickets with it their argument would become moot. This is a money grab that would do nothing but mess up what is already a great 16 weeks of Football.

So, what does everyone else here think about this idea that Goodell has?