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February 23, 2013Marvin Lewis: Chudzinski inheriting a better football team
February 23, 2013In the midst of the start of the NFL Combine, Adam Schefter of ESPN again broke some notable NFL news Friday morning.
The NFL’s new idea: Essentially pushing back the entire offseason schedule by 2-3 weeks. This would move the combine to early March, the start of free agency to early April and the draft to early May.
Schefter reported that the league is pushing this agenda “aggressively” and at least met about it in person in Indianapolis this week. One of the largest likely factors behind the league’s motivation for such a move: More marketing and more money.
As Schefter wrote: “The idea is to lengthen the NFL offseason and make sure football is relevant during a longer offseason period with one big event in each month. It also would create a new revenue stream for the NFL, with each event producing added money for the league.”
Later on Friday, Schefter’s ESPN colleague John Clayton wrote that it’s unlikely the union will ever be in favor of a plan that so drastically delays the start of free agency. They reluctantly agreed to push it back to mid-March already two years ago, but without further trade-offs from the league in negotations, this plan will likely fail. So while this was a logical plan for the NFL to pursue, it just doesn’t make sense in actuality.
Hat tip to Dawgs By Nature for sharing these updates and also breaking down what exactly a revised offseason schedule might look like.
[Related: NFL News: Chudzinski “excited” about Weeden, still needs to see more]