Sophomore Neil Fairman watches a NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans on his TV. Fairman said he supports stadiums being filled to at least half capacity because it would improve the atmosphere at games. (NEIL FAIRMAN SUBMITTED PHOTO)

Neil Fairman, sophomore

Q: What do you think of the NFL expanding the season to 17 games? Why? 

A: “I think that the decision to expand the season is good for the fans and NFL executives, but bad for the players. It’s good for the fans because they get to watch more games, and good for executives because they will make more money. It’s bad for the players because they have to put their bodies through the stress of playing an extra game.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL announcing that games in stadiums will be back in full capacity next season? Do you think this is a wise decision or not? Why?

A: “I think that it might not be a great idea to go to full capacity yet, but they should definitely be at no less than 50% because it makes the atmosphere so much better and it is much needed revenue. I think it would be better if the NFL just leaves it up to each individual stadium to determine their capacity.”

Q: For context, the NFL recently signed this large deal with broadcasters that determines how NFL games will be broadcasted for the next 10+ years. One of the parts of the deal was that some NFL games will be broadcasted on Amazon Prime. What do you think of the NFL’s changes in broadcasting?

A: “I think that it’s good that the NFL is promoting a wide variety of digital platforms because they can reach a larger audience, and it will help bring back lost revenue. They might see much lower viewership on games that are only on prime though because there are probably a lot of people that may not have a subscription to that service.”

Shrithan Sandadi, junior

Q: What do you think of the NFL expanding the season to 17 games? Why? 

A: “At least one positive is that there is going to be more content. It means you have 16 more games and one more game for your favorite team. I guess one negative would be there’s a higher chance for maybe your favorite player or key players on your team to get injured because there’s more games, there’s more tackles, there’s more collisions and more things that could go wrong. I know that they’re thinking about cutting back on preseason games, which might also be bad because there’s less time for these players to get ramped up back to full game speed, so there might be an increase in injuries.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL announcing that games in stadiums will be back in full capacity next season? Do you think this is a wise decision or not? Why?

A: “At the end of the day, the NFL is a business so they have to make decisions that help them make the most profit. At the same time, they should be trying to make sure they can ensure the safety of all the fans involved. If they can provide a safety valve to make sure you are allowed to go to games … like maybe you have to show you got vaccinated or a negative test result in the past two weeks, some type of requirement for you to get into games so we don’t see the coronavirus spreading. If the NFL can actually do something like that, then I think it’ll be OK.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL’s changes in broadcasting?

A: “I think moving to a more online platform is definitely a good strategy because it makes the game more accessible to more people, which is ultimately the main goal for the NFL so that’s definitely good. It provides another avenue for fans to watch the games, which is cool.”

Neal Joshi, senior

Q: What do you think of the NFL expanding the season to 17 games? Why? 

A: “I don’t really have much of a strong feeling towards or against it personally, but I feel like some of the players are not really supportive of that and it was done maybe for money or just to make things more interesting, I guess … I’m not sure if that’s what the players want and I feel like the NFL should be more responsive to the fans and the players because I wasn’t really hearing anyone saying ‘We want one extra regular season game at the end of the season.’”

Q: What do you think of the NFL announcing that games in stadiums will be back in full capacity next season? Do you think this is a wise decision or not? Why?

A: “I think for the most part we’ve kind of figured out what we’re doing in terms of making sure that people are being safe. As to whether (the spectators) are actually doing that once they come inside is another story … Hopefully, and this is kind of optimistic, enough people will be vaccinated so that we can do that safely. I do think it is a little bit rushed to have full-capacity stadiums at the beginning of the season … If the NFL is going to push for full-capacity stadiums at any point, it’s for sure the Super Bowl because it’s such a big cash cow. That’s why I think they’re trying to do it at the beginning of the season. I would expect at the very least they have playoffs and the Super Bowl at full capacity.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL’s changes in broadcasting?

A: “Some of these services, like Amazon, not everyone has, so as long as they’re sticking to local channels, and I think they always will, I don’t really have a problem with it.”

Shravan Chengalva, freshman

Q: What do you think of the NFL expanding the season to 17 games? Why? 

A: “Personally as a fan of the league I’ll enjoy another Sunday of football, especially considering that the final week will give way to an even more interesting playoff push for a greater number of teams. However similar to the NBA this season I do think that we’ll see an uptick of injuries, which is unfortunate for the game in itself.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL announcing that games in stadiums will be back in full capacity next season? Do you think this is a wise decision or not? Why? 

A: “Considering the current vaccination trajectory, I am hopeful that by then it’ll be safe to pack stadiums once again. While it is somewhat premature to say such a thing nearly five months in advance, I think the league is fairly confident that it’ll be fine then.”

Q: What do you think of the NFL’s change in broadcasting? 

A: “Firstly, since I don’t watch every single game, I think it won’t have much of an impact on me and therefore I don’t have too much of an opinion. While I’m not a fan of moving games to different platforms in lieu of nationally televised games, in this particular case I’m not tremendously affected since I have Amazon Prime anyway”

Click this link to read more about the game changes to the NFL: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/31166690/nfl-owners-approve-17-game-season-2021

Visit this page to read more about the NFL’s new TV deal: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfls-new-tv-deal-will-bring-some-major-changes-here-are-10-things-to-know-including-flex-games-on-monday/