The NFL season is over and while my enthusiasm for pro football has been tempered over the years due to changes in the game, the countdown toward next season has already begun in my head.

The league wants to spread itself over more of the calendar. If the idea receives enough support and votes, each NFL campaign may soon include the following changes.

Each team would play one or two less preseason games in exchange for an extra regular season game. With the regular season being increased to 17 games, each team would get two byes. This, coupled with a proposed larger playoff field in both conferences, means each NFL campaign would extend even deeper into the winter.

Except for the two seasons marred by player strikes (1982 and 1987) the NFL season has remained 16 games since 1978, so any extension would be dramatic.

There has also been talk of holding the Super Bowl on Saturday night, to offset the number of people, mostly males, who currently miss work the day after the big game. If the NFL season is extended, it could, at least in some years, interfere with Valentine’s Day weekend.

Maybe wives and girlfriends everywhere can rise up and protest this change and salvage some attention from the football-obsessed men in their lives, though I know the NFL isn’t going to let a date night get in its way of making more money,

Women may have to settle for a hastily signed card, box of chocolates and a small teddy bear holding a heart — to match the ones they have stockpiled in their closets — because a night out in mid-February may soon be a thing of the past.

Ladies, for what it’s worth, you have a staunch ally in me.

I’m still trying to get used to the football season extending into February; there was a time when the Super Bowl was always scheduled in January. Of the first 37 Super Bowls, 36 were played in January. The only one that was not was Super Bowl XXXVI, due to everything being pushed back a week because of the 9/11 attacks.

The NFL is bound and determined to squeeze every cent it can from its popularity. It is a business and I get it, the point of business is to make money. But the NFL would be wise to focus on its long-term health as opposed to making more money over the next few seasons.

There is such a thing as over-saturation. Think about all of the things you look forward to in life. Would your enthusiasm be as great if those things occurred more often?

As a kid, I was ecstatic about summer vacation when it started. By late August, however, I was ready to get back into the routine of going to school.

The NFL and its owners are already bringing in the dough hand over fist.

It’s ironic that the people with the most money are often the ones stretching the limits to make even more.

Eventually, there’s no more to stretch.

Snap!

Derek Pyda is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle