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JuJu Smith-Schuster has been making the media rounds the last few weeks and he recently told CNN that he's not a fan of the new 17-game schedule that the NFL owners implemented in March.
"It takes a lot on your body," Smith-Schuster said. "It takes a toll, especially if you're an older guy, like an older vet, it will probably take more of a toll on you. Seventeen games is a long season, you're talking about practicing every day, three or four times throughout the week and then going in and basically just smashing out and hitting each other."
Smith-Schuster even thinks the extra game will shave years off a player's career.
That [extra game] goes from playing in the league for 10 years to playing in the league for like six, seven years," he said.
The extra game is certainly an inconvenience to the players, as they have to put their bodies on the line for another week. However, at the same time, the NFL did take a preseason game away and the players will receive more money because of the addition of a 17th regular-season game. The players will earn 48.5 percent of the revenue share with the owners.
A 17-game schedule was bound to happen as the NFL Players Association agreed to it last year and the NFL announced a new mega-deal on March 18 with media partners Amazon, CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX and NBC for the distribution of NFL games, as well as additional media rights.
The new agreements will begin with the 2023 season and run through the 2033 season. The NFL will nearly double its media revenue to more than $10 billion a season under the new rights agreements, according to Joe Reedy of the Associated Press.
The 17th game was basically a compromise between the owners and players, as the owners originally wanted an 18-game schedule. So, of course, the owners are looking to profit even more. Personally, I prefer the 16-game schedule as it matched up perfectly in a 32-team league. The season lasts 17 weeks, each team gets a bye and the regular season is played in four months -- September, October, November and December, and then the playoffs start in early January. I wasn't a fan of the addition of a seventh playoff team in each conference, either, a decision also made by the owners to fatten their pockets.