Longer NFL regular season, shorter careers?

(By Charles Chandler, cchandler@charlotteobserver.com) Saturday night's Carolina-Baltimore exhibition at Bank of America Stadium belongs on the endangered species list. It's the third NFL exhibition of the preseason for both clubs, an event that may not exist in another two or three years if fans, team owners, television networks and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell get their way. Goodell has come out strongly in favor of expanding the regular season to 18 games and reducing the preseason to two exhibitions, mainly because fans don't like paying regular-season prices for preseason contests that don't count and in which starters play part-time. Currently, there are four exhibitions and 16 regular-season games. With the economy squeezing the bottom lines of individuals and corporations, the pressure is on to find new revenue. “Swapping out preseason games for regular-season games is viewed as a positive by fans because it improves the quality of what we are presen...