Roger Goodell doesn't sound content with the NFL's four-game preseason, and Ramon Foster doesn't sound content with the alternative.
The commissioner spoke about shortening the preseason and expanding the regular season to 18 games during Jim Kelly's 33rd charity golf tournament over the weekend in Buffalo, N.Y., saying, "I’m not sure, talking with coaches, that four preseason games is necessary anymore to get ready for a season to evaluate players, develop players. There are other ways of doing that, and we’ve had a lot of discussions about that.”
Foster, the Steelers' union representative, went the other way when asked about that Tuesday at the Rooney Complex after the opening of Week 3 of OTAs.
"I'm not opposed to four games at all," Foster said, referring to the preseason. "I think taking away the two and adding two in the regular season, you're going to get trashy football probably in the beginning, the first two games. Look at the way the schedule is now. Teams are ice cold until maybe the first four games across the league. Guys don't really get their feet underneath them. I'd rather do four preseason games, especially being an older guy, too. And then it just gives a younger guy, like myself when I was undrafted, more time to play, more snaps if you got four preseason games. If you take away the two games, then you have a longer camp. Is that what you want? There's a lot that goes in. I don't think it's realistic."
If that sounds like a major issue toward labor peace when the current agreement ends following the 2020 season, add it to the pile. Last season, Richard Sherman, then the 49ers' player rep, said a 2021 lockout is all but guaranteed, and others have expressed similar sentiments.
Not Foster.
"Think about not having football for a year," Foster said. "We need to have football. And why not expand it if we can? Especially if it's right, split of the money is right, the right things are negotiated and we're being fair on each side. Yeah, why not?"
