The National Football League has floated the idea of an 18-game regular season.

Yes, the NFL, which has in the past brought us such dandies as neutral site games in London and Mexico City and instant replay on pass interference penalties, is looking to extend things into February, offering to allow players to continue to be eligible for 16 games only.

It has been broadly bashed in the world of sports/social media.

Stupid, clown-like, another Roger Goodell circus.

And you know what – I love it.

This one, if it is taken forward, could go down as Goodell’s legacy, his finest hour as commissioner.

Extend the NFL season two weeks to the holiday weekend in February.

I see it as a can’t-miss option, more meaningful football.

Bring it on.

Obviously, the 16-game maximum per player, has traditionalists everywhere grousing.

How can you force guys to sit two games? What if a team is 16-0, are you going to tell them they must sit their quarterback in Weeks 17 and 18?

The bottom line is this is a new era in sports and in football. That fact will be drilled home beginning Thursday when the Patriots open camp and trudge through one practice per day, with the lion’s share of them contested without shoulder pads. The athletes’ bodies now matter to ownership and coaching staffs.

Players don’t play the full 16 anymore in a 16-game season.

Did you know that the 2018 Patriots featured 20 athletes who played in all 16 games?

And that included the kicker, punter, holder and long-snapper.

Players need down time. They need to recover.

The added variable to the equation, figuring out weeks off and making the lineup work, add intrigue.

I am so into this. Let’s just hope it happens.

STRAY SHOTS

I blame the 2019 Red Sox and their season of half-heartedness. But I am warning every sports talk radio host in Boston now.

If you use the non-word “lax-adaisical” or allow a caller to misuse the same and don’t correct him, I am snapping off your show.

The word is LACKadaisical. There is no “x” in it. You can be lax, but not “lax-adaisical.”

This is non-negotiable. The policy is one of zero tolerance.

Words are our jobs, fellas.

Also, while the vocab wizard is flexing his muscle, Tom Brady’s TB12 method is an example of a “training regimen,” not a “training regime.”

But that one is hardly spoken of these days. …

I, for one, am sick that I did not see Manny Pacquiao stun previously unbeaten Keith Thurman on Saturday night.

The realist in me, though, just could not justify a $75 outlay.

I’m sorry, boxing folks, $30-40 and you have me. Seventy-five? I’ll wait until it hits Showtime.

Contact Hector Longo at 594-1253 or hlongo@nashuatelegraph.com.

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