Missing the Point

According to ESPN, NFL owners passed four new safety proposals at their annual meeting, including banning the wedge formation on kick-offs, which I hadn't understood to be dangerous before.  However, at the same meetings, NFL owners are considering expanding the regular season to 17 or 18, which, as this Washington Post post points out, would be a major culprit in league-wide injuries.  It's understandable to some extent, given ownership's focus on profitability, that they wouldn't see the connection between expanded seasons and expanded injuries (and their focus, to be fair, is on limiting violent injuries to defense-less players).  But it's also emblematic of a group of people who see players as commodities: widgets in an incredibly violent industry that can be replaced, so long as ratings are up.