I mean, nobody even watches NFL regular season games. The NFL would be a LOT better off if they simply had the two best teams from AFC and NFC go directly to the superbowl.

**End of TIC**

Of course the basketball regular season is going to drag on ... that's the nature of basketball, you can play a lot of games. Football is completely different. Every regular season game is magnified because it's such a short season. Even with 16 regular season games and 12 playoff teams, the NFL regular season is not "diminished" by the existence of a playoff.