Rumor: NFL Preseason Possibly Getting Reduced To Three Games?

There are very few fans of the National Football League that have any love for the fourth post-season game. While it's vital for coaches and general managers in deciding how their teams' rosters will be put together, with most superstars sitting on the sidelines, it doesn't hold much intrigue for the casual fans.

According to a report from Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com, it might not be something that we have to worry about much longer.

Per Demovsky's report, the NFL's competition committee has had "lengthy discussions" about reducing the preseason schedule for NFL teams to just three games instead of the four they have now. It doesn't sound as though it would change a whole lot in terms of the calendar. . .training camps would start at around the same time and things like that. However, from what it sounds like in Demovsky's article, teams would end up with a two-week break between their final preseason game and the start of the regular season rather than trying to shoehorn that fourth preseason game in-between.

The fourth preseason game generally takes place on a Thursday night, so that would eliminate half of the teams having to travel and give front offices and coaching staffs time to evaluate their teams based on what they saw in camp and in their three preseason games.

It doesn't sound as though the change would affect the 2016 preseason, but it sounds like it could definitely be in play for 2017 and beyond. Hopefully this isn't a precursor to the league attempting to lengthen the regular season schedule. . .if the shortened preseason is being done primarily because of potential injury concerns, making the regular season longer would, at the very least, cancel that out.