Dan Marino: Don’t Turn the NFL into Flag Football
The NFL is a $10 billion business. That's bigger than Burger King (BKW) and US Airways (LCC) combined.
And like any business, the NFL is always looking for new growth opportunities. One idea that seems to be gaining steam: an 18-game season, which could boost revenues by $500 million. The de-facto CEO of the league, commissioner Roger Goodell, said last month that a proposal to expand the season is "on the table." The Players Union is generally against adding games, in part because of wear and tear on its players. And that's where the concussion issue comes into the equation. More games mean more injuries. According to the @NFLConcussions Twitter feed, 240 concussions were disclosed by players and teams last season. So how does Goodell balance these two issues: player safety and profits?
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Former NFL quarterback Dan Marino tells The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task there's a fine line between protecting the players from concussions, and changing the game outright. "If you take away too much of it, then it's gonna be like flag football... the player's know what the risk are... when I went out there to play I knew there was a chance I could get a concussion..."
Marino also talked about the ongoing HGH-testing issue (players and the league agreed to testing two years ago but have yet to implement a plan and Congress is threatening to get involved).
Task asks Marino in the above clip how extensive the performance-enhancing drug problem is in the NFL right now. Marino says: "I think there are guys using it. Personally, maybe I'd be a little naive in this situation and say, well hopefully they're less than 10% but it could be a lot higher than that."
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