NFL Leaders Warm To Longer Season

"If you don't like the quality of quarterback play now," said Cross, now a broadcaster with CBS, "take away those two [preseason] games that are in kind of a laboratory environment and see how you like it then."

But NFL teams already practice practically year-round these days, and Baltimore Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said coaches would have to find other ways to give opportunities for younger players to prove themselves.

"Can you get your team ready to play? Yes," Newsome said. "But do you have enough time to evaluate your younger players? Probably not. That would be the issue. You'd have to come up with some other mechanism, like scrimmages."

Taking away two preseason games, in which veterans go less than all out and spend much of their time on the sideline, and replacing them with two far more intense regular season games might seem to increase the threat of injuries. But Newsome, a Hall of Fame tight end for the Cleveland Browns, said he isn't overly concerned.

"We've had more guys sustain injuries in practice," Newsome said. "They didn't get hurt in games. They got hurt in practice. You have to practice. You can't get rid of injuries."

The questions, then, become what changes to make and when to make them. Goodell said at an owners' meeting in May in Atlanta that the owners were considering the possibility of adding a 17th regular season game. That could leave some teams playing nine home games in a season while others play eight. Goodell said the extra home game could rotate annually by conference.

It also has been speculated that, with the NFL having made a push in recent years to increase its global appeal by playing regular season games outside the United States, the 17th regular season game could be devoted to playing at overseas sites. Cross said he could envision that happening.

"I think it'll go to 17 first," Cross said, adding that he could foresee such a change as soon as the 2009 season. "I think we'll see the 17th in pretty short order and then if that works well, go to 18 somewhere down the line."

But Kraft said he would favor a jump from 16 to 18 regular season games per team.

"I could support the other [17 games] if my colleagues thought that was the way to go," Kraft said. "But we all want to win and it's about competitive balance. If you go to 17, there would be some competitive imbalance each season. I would support 17. But I think 18 is a little cleaner."

In May, Goodell was noncommittal when asked whether talks with the union to secure the players' approval of lengthening the regular season would have to come as part of the labor negotiations, or in a separate set of discussions that could be more quickly resolved. He said that had yet to be determined. This week, Kraft said he believes such talks with the union must come as part of the labor negotiations.

If so, that would mean the change probably wouldn't be made before the 2010 season. Under the current labor agreement, the 2009 season is the final one with a salary cap. That is likely to push the owners and players to try to get a new labor deal done in the spring of 2010, and any changes negotiated into that agreement would take effect the following fall.

The TV money could be negotiated soon thereafter. The league's deals with NBC, Fox and CBS run through the 2011 season. Its deal with DirecTV expires after the 2010 season, and its deal with ESPN runs through the 2013 season.

"I would only see it as part of a new labor deal," Kraft said. "We could probably negotiate on the TV end of it. It would create some opportunities to do a few things. But I really see this in the context of the labor agreement."